Former Manhattan borough president Ruth Messinger gave a lecture last night about disasters in the developing world.
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The event, held at the Kimmel Center, was hosted by the Bronfman Center, HillelNYU and the SHARP Lecture Series, among others.
Bronfman Center social action chair Gabby Lewin said she helped organize the event to show her admiration for Messinger, the current president of the American Jewish World Service.
"[Ruth Messinger] has always been one of my role models and she's a nationally known human rights activist," Lewin said.
Messinger began her speech by introducing the mission of AJWS — to give grants to grassroots organizations in aid-starved areas, through sustained multiyear efforts.
"The emphasis here is that the vision for social change comes from the people on the ground," she said.
She stressed that only those living in disaster-stricken areas were able to determine what they needed to rebuild their homes.
Messinger reassured listeners that the distribution process did not detract from the funds, and that all funds were made quickly accessible to the local visionaries, most of whom lived on less than $2 per day.
"The average grant we give out is $20,000, and I promise you that it changes the life of a community," she said.
When talk turned to the organization's efforts in Haiti, Messinger said the country's slow recovery from the earthquake was largely due to its exorbitant foreign debts — first incurred as a result of French preconditions for Haitian independence 200 years before.
"This disaster isn't just a natural disaster," she said. "This was a country that was in crisis for years before the earthquake. The only difference now is, quite frankly, that we all found out about it."
She added that the debts would finally be forgiven as a result of the recent devastation.
Lastly, Messinger described AJWS' relief efforts in three stages — immediate and short term relief, a focus on expanding outreach capacity of grassroots organizations and long-term plans to speed construction and regain food security for Haiti.
She then asked the audience to push Congress for a "local procurement" clause in the Haitian allocation bill, to ensure that food aid would not simply be providing a channel for American surplus while harming Haitian farmers. The speaker ended the night with a quote and a few final words of inspiration.
"Everything one does affects, in some way, everyone else in the world," she said. "That is a burden that I'd like you to leave here with tonight."
