INTERNATIONAL POVERTY TRACK
Can your music downloads help provide freedom for women on the other side of the world? Yes.
The Welcome Wagon and Asthmatic Kitty is partnering with Urbana 09's International Poverty Track and FreeSetGlobal.com in the Sonogacchi Song Project, an effort to help end the sex trade industry in the Sonagacchi red light district, Kolkata’s most infamous sex trade community.
Overview
This track explored missions in light of the grinding poverty which spawns such atrocities as sex trafficking and child labor and which fuels slum communities, global unemployment and despair in most every country on the planet.T
he U.N. estimates that there are 2.6 billion people who live on $2 or less per day. Poverty changes how we approach missions. If the gospel is to be particularly good news to the poor, then we must ask, "How is the gospel which I am bringing good news to those who live on $2 a day?"
Participants had access to world-class speakers and practitioners who are devoted to eliminating poverty and ushering in the Kingdom that Jesus came to usher in. Participants also took direct steps to alleviate poverty by working at the Urbana 09 fair trade world market, where all products are fair trade and all proceeds go directly back to the benefit of slum communities.
Track Director: Helyn Luisi-Mills
Helyn is the National Coordinator of Global Projects for InterVarsity. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, she and her family immigrated to the US in the late 80's. After graduating from college, she and her husband, Peter, served with the Peace Corps in Bangladesh. During this time she learned that the one thing she would be tested by God to give up were arepas (a Venezuelan corn meal patty - the ultimate comfort food). Fortunately, she was regularly blessed by care packages from home containing the necessary ingredients. Helyn has led teams with the Global Urban Trek in Central America and Asia. She loves to spoil her baby nieces with their favorite cookies and arepas. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her hubby, Peter, and survives winters by going to the gym and painting the walls of her home in bright colors.
