Fr. Jenkins' Letter to the University regarding the Notre Dame Millenium Development Initiative
I never shared this here -- I'd like everyone, not just Domers, to read it. I'll be posting another entry about it soon.
Dear Members of the Notre Dame Community,
On Thursday, September 14, I announced the creation of the Notre Dame Millennium Development Initiative during my closing remarks at the Notre Dame Forum. I want to elaborate on this important endeavor that will begin taking shape during this academic year.
Through the Millennium Development Initiative, Notre Dame will participate in the Millennium Village Project, a collaborative effort dedicated to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Adopted by world leaders in September 2000 during the United Nations Millennium Summit, these timebound and measurable goals have been placed at the heart of the global agenda of the United Nations. The goals focus on combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. The realization of these goals will reduce the gap between wealthy and poor parts of our world and enhance the long-term prospects for peace.
The Millennium Village Project is based on the idea that impoverished villages can transform themselves and meet the Millennium Development Goals if they are empowered with proven and practical technologies. This project seeks to end extreme poverty by working with the poor, village by village, in sub-Saharan Africa, providing affordable and science-based solutions to help people to lift themselves out of poverty. These community-led interventions focus on increasing agricultural productivity, improving infrastructure, and expanding access to healthcare and education. Our participation in the Millennium Village Project will focus on Uganda, where Notre Dame, through the Congregation of Holy Cross, has strong ties.
The opportunities this partnership affords the Notre Dame community are many, the central goal is two-fold: to assist villagers in implementing the interventions central to the Millennium Village Project and to provide faculty and students, both graduate and undergraduate, with research opportunities that contribute to human development.
I have asked Rev. Robert Dowd, C.S.C. (Department of Political Science) to serve as Director of the Millennium Development Initiative. He is assembling a task force consisting of faculty, staff and alumni to further develop the vision and goals of the initiative and help guide its actions during this first year. During the second semester, Fr. Dowd will organize information sessions and form working groups of students and other members of the Notre Dame community who wish to lend their talents, energy and experience to this project. He and others involved in the initiative will be traveling back and forth between Africa and Notre Dame in the coming year and I hope to visit Uganda during the coming months.
Though the Millennium Development Initiative is rooted in the generosity of Ray Chambers, a renowned philanthropist and a member of our Board of Trustees, its success is equally dependent on the participation of many members of the Notre Dame community. I envisage this initiative as a responsibility, an opportunity and a blessing. We at Notre Dame have many gifts to share; our partners in Uganda have many lessons to teach. I believe this initiative is an important way to fulfill our mission, “to cultivate in [our] students not only an appreciation for the great achievements of human beings but sensibility to the poverty, injustice and oppression that burden the lives of so many…to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice.”
In Notre Dame,
Rev. John I Jenkins, C.S.C.
President
Dear Members of the Notre Dame Community,
On Thursday, September 14, I announced the creation of the Notre Dame Millennium Development Initiative during my closing remarks at the Notre Dame Forum. I want to elaborate on this important endeavor that will begin taking shape during this academic year.
Through the Millennium Development Initiative, Notre Dame will participate in the Millennium Village Project, a collaborative effort dedicated to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Adopted by world leaders in September 2000 during the United Nations Millennium Summit, these timebound and measurable goals have been placed at the heart of the global agenda of the United Nations. The goals focus on combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. The realization of these goals will reduce the gap between wealthy and poor parts of our world and enhance the long-term prospects for peace.
The Millennium Village Project is based on the idea that impoverished villages can transform themselves and meet the Millennium Development Goals if they are empowered with proven and practical technologies. This project seeks to end extreme poverty by working with the poor, village by village, in sub-Saharan Africa, providing affordable and science-based solutions to help people to lift themselves out of poverty. These community-led interventions focus on increasing agricultural productivity, improving infrastructure, and expanding access to healthcare and education. Our participation in the Millennium Village Project will focus on Uganda, where Notre Dame, through the Congregation of Holy Cross, has strong ties.
The opportunities this partnership affords the Notre Dame community are many, the central goal is two-fold: to assist villagers in implementing the interventions central to the Millennium Village Project and to provide faculty and students, both graduate and undergraduate, with research opportunities that contribute to human development.
I have asked Rev. Robert Dowd, C.S.C. (Department of Political Science) to serve as Director of the Millennium Development Initiative. He is assembling a task force consisting of faculty, staff and alumni to further develop the vision and goals of the initiative and help guide its actions during this first year. During the second semester, Fr. Dowd will organize information sessions and form working groups of students and other members of the Notre Dame community who wish to lend their talents, energy and experience to this project. He and others involved in the initiative will be traveling back and forth between Africa and Notre Dame in the coming year and I hope to visit Uganda during the coming months.
Though the Millennium Development Initiative is rooted in the generosity of Ray Chambers, a renowned philanthropist and a member of our Board of Trustees, its success is equally dependent on the participation of many members of the Notre Dame community. I envisage this initiative as a responsibility, an opportunity and a blessing. We at Notre Dame have many gifts to share; our partners in Uganda have many lessons to teach. I believe this initiative is an important way to fulfill our mission, “to cultivate in [our] students not only an appreciation for the great achievements of human beings but sensibility to the poverty, injustice and oppression that burden the lives of so many…to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice.”
In Notre Dame,
Rev. John I Jenkins, C.S.C.
President
posted by Bridget McGann at 10:08 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for your post - it's good to hear positive news regarding Fr. Jenkins (and ND) ... and stop by and visit us when you get a chance. BTW do you have any idea what setting to use to keep ALL your posts on the front page instead of having them disappear into the archives? We use Blogger too. (It's cool you live in South Bend - close to ND and their beautiful campus.) -- Jeanette O'Toole (wife of Tom)
Firstly, to answer your question -- You can show up to 999 posts on your front page by going to Settings >> Formatting and changing the number in the first option. But keep in mind that eventually that is going to take up a lot of room!
Also, may I ask who you are? I'm sorry, I don't recognize your name, and you asked me to come visit you but I've no idea who "you" is! It sounds like you are Domers or at least ND fans. Either way I'd be curious to know how you found your way to my blog!
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