Daily Devotion - Tuesday, October 21

How Can the World Become Better?

“Don’t spend your precious time asking,
'Why isn’t the world a better place?’
It will only be time wasted.
A better question to ask is ‘How can I make it better?’
To that question there is an answer.”
--Leo Buscaglia (The Way of the Bull), p. 125

Traveling to Rwanda this summer gave me an opportunity to observe a most resilient third world country working diligently at recovery following genocide just 14 years ago. This week I’d like to introduce you to some of the projects we visited. Today I’d like to introduce you to Dr. Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University who, in partnership with the United Nations Development Program, is heading the Millennium Villages Project in 10 African countries.

The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) is designed to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals in 5 years. The Rwandan project, in the Bugesera District of Rwanda, is helping develop four key components needed for community development. The four focal points are Agriculture, Education, Entrepreneurship and Medical Services. The project is quite a success in this region which has been severely affected by both genocidal and environmental destruction. As with all things in life, there are obvious strengths and weaknesses within the program; this appeared to me as a helpful example of how “trickle down” decision making works. One developmental challenge Rwanda faces with this approach seems to be that their population growth is greater than the infrastructure that the MVP can handle.

Leo Buscaglia’s quote is most insightful; Jeffrey Sachs work is one example of a person dedicated to making the world a better place.

Ben Keckler
10.21.08