Announcing Occupy Extreme Poverty

Dear Fellow Occupiers,

My name is William. I am a member and supporter of Occupy Oakland. I want to introduce a new, autonomous initiative that I’m trying to start within the larger Occupy Movement. It is called Occupy Extreme Poverty. I’m hoping that some of my fellow occupiers who are, like myself, concerned about the poor suffering in third world countries and places of conflict can use some of Occupy’s powerful voice to advocate for the destitute and voiceless. I want Occupy Extreme Poverty to be a venue that occupiers from any locality can join up with and use to express their opinions on issues like global health, foreign aid, international policy, and other factors affecting extreme poverty. I also want it to facilitate the sharing of information and resources, so that those who are interested have an extensive starting point for educating themselves. As the diversity of Occupy is central to its power, and as extreme poverty is a complex subject, I realize and support the range of viewpoints, some of which will be conflicting, that my fellow occupiers will bring to this discussion. I do not wish to use Occupy Extreme Poverty as my personal soapbox. Rather, I am merely trying to act as a catalyst for what will be just one more example of Occupy’s ability to generate robust activism from the grassroots.

To further this goal, I have started a website for Occupy Extreme Poverty at: http://occupyextremepoverty.org and a Twitter account at: http://twitter.com/OccupyEP. Through this website, I have started to offer suggestions regarding how occupiers can get involved and links to and descriptions of resources for them to learn more about extreme poverty. I hope that what I have posted is only a small base on which to build and that others will supply knowledge, opinions, and discussion to make Occupy Extreme Poverty worthy of the Occupy name. I ask that if you are interested in joining this cause that you please visit the website. To be successful, the site will need people to research and write content and the cause will need brainstorming regarding how to best proceed forward. To get involved, please contact me on the site’s contact page or at info@occupyextremepoverty.org.

Best regards,
William