The Global Poverty Project will inform the Syracuse University community on the international issue of extreme poverty through a multimedia presentation Saturday.

University Union will host a presentation by The Global Poverty Project in Gifford Auditorium on Saturdayat 6 p.m. The presentation, titled “1.4 Billion Reasons,” raises awareness about how 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty, or the equivalent of $1.50 per day. 

GPP, a non-governmental organization, is embarking on an international tour to raise awareness about the Live Below the Linecampaign, which challenges Americans to live on or below $1.50 a day between April 29-May 3.Though GPP is an advocacy and education group, members hopes their efforts will help end poverty by 2015, according to GPP’s website.

“I want to encourage people to get involved, either in our campaigns or take action with their communities, families or purchases,” said Brittany Aubin, a GPP presenter.

GPP presents “1.4 Billion Reasons” to various audiences in North America, Australia and Europe. The goal of the presentation is to address the issue of poverty and enlighten the audience on how widespread the issue is, Aubin said.

Aubin was in Zambia with the Peace Corps working on a HIV education initiative before joining GPP. Using the “1.4 Billion Reasons” multimedia presentation, which includes video and images from high-poverty areas, Aubin said she plans to share her own personal anecdotes on poverty.

She said she was shocked at how low the standards of hygiene were, while at the same time everybody had cellphones.

“We not only want people to learn about extreme poverty, but we want you to take away that there are things we can do to solve global poverty in our lifetime,” said Shannon Heath, director of public relations for GPP.

Heath said there are three major obstacles to overcome to eradicate poverty by 2015: a lack of infrastructure, trade laws blocking aid for developing nations and corruption in developing nations.

She added that GPP hopes to follow in the footsteps of other organizations by continuing to advocate and educate the public about extreme poverty.

Aaron Westelman, a freshman in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, said he was shocked to hear that 1.4 billion people live on $1.50 a day.

“That’s ridiculous to think that that many people live on that little a day,” Westelman said. “I spent over that on just my coffee this morning.”

Another SU organization was originally supposed to sponsor the presentation, but had to back out at the last minute, said Sarah Fleisher, UU director of public relations, in an email. She added that an SU student approached UU and convinced the organization to help sponsor the event.

“It’s a great cause, and we’re always looking for new collaborations so we said, ‘Why not?’” Fleisher said.

So far, 135,000 people around the world have seen the presentation. GPP wants to continue this momentum and spread the word on a local level with the spring 2013 tour. The goal is to reach 20,000 people with 100 presentations in 100 days, according to the organization’s website.

“People will go out of the presentation feeling they learned something in a very radical and different way,” said Aubin, the GPP presenter. “You will leave there with the belief that you can do something about poverty and it’s not a hopeless cause. It is something that our generation has the ability to see the end to.”

Published on January 30, 2013 at 11:58 pm

Contact Kelvin: kbread@syr.edu