If anyone is interested, I am working with a micro finance institution called Kiva. Kiva is a program that enables people like you and me to lend money to a struggling entrepreneur in a developing country. Before you think this is a scam or donation, this program is based on the concept of investing and returning. Kiva screens candidates who are seeking a loan. We, the "investors" can see these candidates and read their profiles. Then, once we have selected someone we want to donate to, we lend a sum of money, greater than or equal to $25 USD. The candidate receives this money from a micro credit union that Kiva is affiliated with, and then starts his/her business. Once the candidate has made enough money from their flowering business, he/she MUST repay the investor (no interest though). The time it takes to compensate the investor depends on how much income the candidate accrues from his/her business.

For example, I recently gave a man named Godfred in Ghana $25 dollars. He will use my money to replenish the stock of school supplies that he sells in his store. Because Kiva has a transparent platform, I can see exactly what MY $25 is being used for. Godfred has agreed to compensate me in 8 months.

$25 dollars could buy me pedicure or possibly dinner at a sushi joint, but to someone else, $25 might mean a new goat (that'll produce more milk for a farmer to sell and thus be able to feed his/her family).

I think Kiva is a wonderful program and I will get my money back.

Here's the website if anyone is interested:
http://www.Kiva.org

I hope you'll consider this! Remember, you are not simply donating money to an impoverished individual. Instead, you are affording that person the opportunity to pull himself OUT of poverty!

Yeah, that seems the easy thing to do, just wipe off all the debt and start fresh. I'm not an economist, but I do know that just "wiping off" all international debts will somehow severely damage the economic systems in the countries to whom the debt is owed. If it were that easy, the countries would've done it already. We're obviously missing something complex in the situation as to WHY we can't just "wipe off" all the debt. Or, it could be as simple as those countries in need of the debt money would go even more impoverished, since it would have to pay off all the debt expenses by itself. So if we want to end international poverty, it won't help to make impoverished countries come up with more money than they already don't have. I've heard from a program on History Channel that the world does, in fact, have enough food to sustain all of it's inhabitants. We're just not sharing it enough.
Anyway that little fact was off topic for what I'm about to explain. I don't believe in giving out food to impoverished people here in America. They're going to eat the food in one week, and be hungry again the next. So all these food drives aren't truly solving the problem in the long run. What we should really focus on is improving the school systems and education. If kids are offered a good education, they'll grow up and get a good job hopefully, and so they won't be impoverished. It's mainly the employment issue. Most impoverished people do have jobs, but those jobs are mostly low-paying jobs, not even really careers. We need to make sure everyone has a decent job to provide for themselves and their families. If there were more people out there stimulating the economy with the money they earn from their decent jobs, we wouldn't be in a recession. Good education = decent careers = no more poverty. Correct me if I'm wrong, please, seriously. I'd hate to sound like a naive idiot. =D

Most of the money isn't owed to individual countries, it's owed to the World Bank and IMF (International Monetary Fund) which are both global initiatives inspired by the U.N to help developing economies. That in itself is all well and good. The remainder of money is owed to countries that didn't need the cash, such as Saudi Arabia and U.A.E, due to the huge amount of natural resources they had. If they truly did need the money, they probably wouldn't have given it away. Of course, this debt can be refinanced through the World Bank anyway.

However, most of the debt has been accumulated in times of financial drought, such as the 1973 energy crisis (where all the petrol companies made a cartel and increased the price of oil by 400%, and, was ironically enough, caused by the creditors not giving any oil to the U.S), and as such, the money borrowed (at a rate of interest), was spent immediately on short term assets. The main problem isn't even the amount borrowed, it's the interest.

The issue with the widespread clearance of debt, is the immediate defaulting it would produce. If debt were to be cleared, everyone would borrow heaps and then not pay. Although the widespread clearance of international debt is the most immediate means of ending poverty (to the extent suffered in poorer parts of the world), it isn't realistic. However, what can be done, is a decreased or nil interest rate for monies borrowed in times of economic struggle, (such as the energy crisis of 1973) which was used simply to keep economies afloat.

I also agree with the food drive issue you raised, but one issue caused by poverty is the lack of jobs. Businesses need large amounts of capital to start (businesses from the country in question, because they are what benefits the economy) and it's hard to acquire this when all your money is being shipped overseas to globalist banks. Therefore the lack of money = lack of internal business = lack of 'careers' = higher unemployment rate = lack of external money (from other countries). Economically, it's called a downward spiral, and it seems to occur every ten or so years in the States, but only short term.

But don't forget to help the poor...

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