This is an important day for women all over the world, dear readers. Jane is fortunate to be a successful businesswoman in the United States. The good life we live here, despite occasional troubles, is better than many, many lives in many, many other places all over the world.
Today, March 8, 2005, is commemorated by the United Nations as International Women's Day. It is a day like no other. A day when "women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day..." and to "look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development."
On this momentus day, we celebrate with our sisters all over the world, by bringing you an interview with John and Carol Coonrod, a husband and wife team working on The Hunger Project. These two extraordinary people were introduced to us by a blogging friend at Conference Calls Unlimited. Together and singly, they embody much of what Jane and Lip-sticking stand for: the power of men and women to accomplish great things together, and the innate desire women have to feed the world. Please read, enjoy, and click over to THP's website to donate. 
Lip-sticking: John and Carol: How did you get started in this endeavor?
John: I had been an anti-war activist in Berkeley while in physics graduate school - the war was over - I heard about THP and it captured my imagination - as it turned out, I was the first volunteer. I volunteered for 8 years while working as a physicist, and then at the height of the African famine in 1985, I made a career change - I knew this is where my heart is.
Carol: I am the grand-daughter of a suffragette and the daughter of a man who thought the world should be just. I absorbed their ideals and their activism and was drawn to the women's movement-- and proudly called myself a feminist. But, for a long time, my scope was limited to the US. It's through my work in The Hunger Project that my commitment to justice and to women has an opportunity to be expressed at a depth and scope I could not have imagined as I was growing up. THP allows me to discover what it means to be a global citizen and it provides a way for me to have my life be an expression of what I'm comitted to.
Lip-sticking: Should we (and our readers) be sending food?
John: It is almost always a mistake to send food. What we tend to forget is that hungry people almost all earn their living as food producers. Sending food destroys their livelihoods. Even in emergencies, it is better for us to send cash to buy food locally, to strengthen the economy of the local people.
Lip-sticking: On its homepage, the Hunger Project says women are the key to ending hunger. Why is that?
John: Four reasons. First - women are the most affected by hunger - they are the poorest and most marginalized. Second - the well-being of all of us depends on the well-being of our mother, not only when she is pregnant but throughout her entire life back to when she herself was in her mother's womb. Third - women are the key food producers. They produce half the world's food. In Africa they produce 80% of the food. Yet they are almost always bypassed by aid programs to help farmers. Fourth - women are key decision makers. It is women who bear primary responsibility for family health, nutrition and education, yet women lack voice in those decisions. When women control more of the household money, nutrition improves. When women have voice in government, they shift the agenda towards health, nutrition and education.
Lip-sticking: We think men must contribute also. What about them?
John: Impoverished rural men are more willing to change their minds than they are given credit for. True - they often resist change at first. Yet when they see the change improves the lives of their family and the village, they get on board. "Traditions" are not cast in stone - rural people often change their traditions. For example, when the women in one Senegal village wanted literacy, the men said - "Why should my wife learn to read? My mother didn't need to read! My grandmother didn't need to read" One year later, those same men were saying, "we're proud that our wives can read. I always wished my mother could have read. And my grandmother!"
Lip-sticking: How is THP funded?
John: We have the freedom to pioneer innovative, high-leverage strategies because we are funded almost entirely by highly committed individuals. We invite people to make ending world hunger a major priority in their
lives.
In fact, we don't call ourselves "donors" - we call ourselves "investors" - standing in partnership with the hungry people who are doing the lion's share of the work to end hunger. Many people join our "Financial Family" - investing $100 or more each month. Quite a few people - middle-income people - invest $5000 or more each year, as members of our Global Investor Group.
Lip-sticking: We can't help wondering-- what is it like to work in international work? What is it like to work together as a married couple?
John: To me, the greatest inspiration in this work is coming to know people in Asia, Africa and Latin America who are on fire with their commitment. I've gotten to meet women and men who marched alongside Gandhi, and who have found in THP a home for their commitment.
As for working together - it is amazing how well it works. I remember seeing a documentary 30 years ago about Charles and Ray Eames - the great designers who worked together, and I thought - hmm - that sounds like it would be difficult. But I've found it to be liberating. Life is simple when you're totally committed to something together - there are no feelings of conflict over spending too much time at work versus family - it's all one. We work hard when we work, and when we vacate we REALLY vacate. (we expect he means 'vacation', dear readers.)
Carol: I never imagined that I would thrive in a relationship where my husband and I work together. We walk together to work most mornings -- except when one of us is traveling -- and then return home together at night. Rather than being stultifying or boring, I love sharing a life so completely with my partner.
Lip-sticking: Tell us what it's like to work with partners around the world?
Carol: I spent last evening with 50 women from a number of countries in 
South America, from Kenya, from Lapland (in Norway) -- all of whom are in New York for the Beijing +10 Women's Conference to assess the progress being made on issues that impact women. Few of the women spoke English and my Spanish is non-existent. We shared a meal and danced together. As is always my experience with women (and men) from developing countries, there is a profound joy in life that is not a function of what one does or does not have.
Lip-sticking: Can you give us an idea of how many hungry people there are in the world?
Carol: There are 852 million hungry people in the world, with 20,000 of us dying each day from hunger and hunger-related causes. Only 8% of these people are victims of famine -- the image that we often see onTV and in photos, of people uprooted from their homes due to a natural disaster (tsunami, extreme and extended drought) or from civil unrest (as in the Sudan). The vast majority of hungry people - 92% - are caught in chronic, persistent hunger. They lack the opportunity, or are denied the opportunity, to earn enough money, to produce enough food, to be educated, to learn the skills they need to meet their basic needs or to have voice in the decisions that affect their lives. These people are invisible to most people, yet, they are struggling day to day, trying to survive.
Lip-sticking: We like the maxim, "if you give a man a fish..." Does that work?
Carol: The Hunger Project realizes that we don't need to teach anyone to fish; hungry people already know how to fish. Our work is to remove the barbed wire around the fish pond that keeps the people from being able to fish. The conditions that give rise to hunger include customs and laws as well as corruption and top-down bureaucracies that result in societies that keep people from being able to have access to that which is rightfully theirs and to live healthy and productive lives.
Lip-sticking: But, so much is already being done overseas, isn't it?
Carol: In truth, only 2% of US philanthropic dollars leave the US! We are a generous people and I expect most people think that we are sending far more money overseas than we are. And a lot of that 2% goes for the arts. Given the wealth that is in the US -- if one lives in a household making $50,000 per year, we are in the top 5% of the world's population -- compared with the 3 billion people living on $2/day or less, I find it dismaying that such a small portion of our philanthropy leaves our country.
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Tonight, dear readers, while watching the national news, Jane cringed when Peter Jennings announced that gas prices were going to go to $3.00/gallon by summer. After talking with John and Carol, we feel properly chastized. Is it not better to stay home for a whole day, save the gas money and send it to The Hunger Project, than it is to whine about that extra dollar? No matter how difficult it is for us to pull that dollar out of our wallet or pocketbook, it's by far easier than trying to scrape it out of the dirt-- as the families John and Carol know, are doing.
We believe there is much to like about supporting The Hunger Project. We hope you do, also.
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