What to do?
Want to share you passion for the world’s poor with others? Hosting a local house party is simple way to share your passion for the helping to world’s poorest communities.The best news? Anyone can host a house party. Here are some simple steps and suggestions to get you started.
Step 1: Pick a Theme
Where do you want to raise awareness? Invisible Children has a great video/movie you can show about Child Soldiers in northern Uganda. But get creative. Brandi McElheny (twitter = @brandim), a hope monger in Orlando is famous for bead and apron parties to raise awareness and money for orphans.
Step 2: Save the Date
Give people 3 or 4 weeks of heads up so they are sure to make the party. This will give you plenty of time to adapt if there is a calendar conflict.
Step 3: Get the word out.
Invite people to help you plan the party, put it together and create some buzz.
Step 4: Provide food.
Provide an ethnic sampling of food to give people a litteral taste of the culture. Or, like Katie Davis, serve 4 ounces of rice and beans to illustrate meals from an orphanage or IDP (internally displaced persons) camp.
Step 5: Have Fun.
Don't waste your party. The issues are serious but God is big. Maintain a healthy perspective of your role in ending poverty and have grace for people who are learning.
Resources to help you get started.
Movies to Show
- The Lost Boys of Sudan
- Invisible Children: Discovery the Unseen
- God Grew Tired of Us
- Born into Brothels
Book Club Material
- Red Letters: Living a Faith that Bleeds by Tom DavisList item
- The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey SachList item
- Scared: A Novel on the Edge of the World by Tom DavisList item
- Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver MooreList item
- On the Move by BonoList item
- A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael BeahList item
- Three Cups of Tea
- Justice in the Burbs by Will and Lisa Sampson
Host a Fundraiser
- Start a blogger contest with prizes sponsored by local businesses
- End Poverty Concert with local bands at your local Chick-fil-A
- Wash cars to fund a new well in Kenya
- Hold a garage sale to support a computer lab in Romania
- Hold a bake sale to feed orphans in Haiti
- Stage a silent auction to build a school in El Salvador
- Host a casino night fundraiser to support widows in India
- Sell Ugandan paper bead necklaces.