[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 113 (Thursday, July 10, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H6388]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             GLOBAL POVERTY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CAPPS. Today, I rise to speak about global poverty, and 
specifically to share my experiences as part of the House Democracy 
Assistance Commission Congressional Delegation visit recently to six 
African countries. This Commission supports the development of 
Democratic governments around the world by establishing peer-to-peer 
relationships with emerging Democratic legislatures.
  There is one striking feature in most of the nations we visited on 
this trip, and they included Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritania, the 
Democratic Republic of Congo, and Liberia. In each of these countries, 
at least half of the population lives on less than $2 a day.
  You know, in so much of the Continent of Africa, a continent vibrant 
and rich with resources and wonderful people, it's overwhelming to see 
up close and in very personal ways the fact that adults regularly die 
from preventible disease and children so horribly malnourished.
  In fact, according to UNICEF, even in today's modern world, with all 
the technology that is available, over 26,000 children under the age of 
five die every single day due to poverty. Just think of it. Twenty-six 
thousand lives lost each day.
  This number, more than any other, brings home to me with cruel 
immediacy the absolute desperate needs of the world's poor. As we know, 
poverty is not only the result of economic and social policy 
shortcomings, it also thrives on war. This scourge is the means by 
which incredible gender and minority inequality flourishes.
  I am thinking now of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo who, 
even as we speak, are enduring unspeakable acts of sexual violence and 
degradation. The lives of so many of the world's people are horribly 
short and difficult because we have all failed to properly distribute 
the abundant resources of Mother Earth.
  These facts are reprehensible and would seem to leave us without hope 
in the future. But wherever poverty may have taken hold in Africa, it 
has failed to take hold of the African spirit.
  In Malawi, a country where 62 percent of the population lives on less 
than $2 a day, and where an estimated 15 percent of the adult 
population is HIV positive, we visited health programs that are a 
tribute to what is possible when we unite to help each other.
  As a nurse, I took special note of our visits to orphan and health 
care programs run by the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance, as well as 
Direct Relief International. These are local, nonprofit agencies that 
are supported directly by many constituents of mine in my congressional 
district, and I was honored and humbled to see where these gifts of my 
friends and neighbors at home, where these gifts are being used so 
fruitfully in these countries to support and nurture and nourish the 
lives of orphan children and women suffering with HIV and AIDS.
  From HIV prevention, school tuition, and transport to pediatric HIV 
treatment centers, as well as caring for the ill, these organizations, 
and there are many of them, and the incredible people that work for 
them and with them, are helping to bring change to the lives of 
Malawian children and families.
  The African spirit was also thriving in countries like Kenya and 
Liberia, both of which are working very hard to maintain and strengthen 
their Democratic institutions, countries where we enjoyed democracy 
building with their parliaments. It was a team effort. And it was a 
real honor, again, to be there on behalf of our U.S. Congress.
  It will not be easy to turn the tide of poverty in Africa. But, 
working together, progress is being made. I implore my colleagues to 
keep this continent, the cradle of life, at the forefront of our minds 
on this House floor.

                          ____________________