The Iowa Council for International Understanding is holding a forum tonight (Friday) on poverty. Colin Peterson, the International Programs Manager, says the purpose of the forum is to talk about the connection between poverty globally and poverty locally.
Peterson says they’ll have experts to talk about local and international poverty. He says they want to talk about what Iowans can do about the issue.
He says poverty is such an overwhelming issue and they don’t want people to leave thinking there’s nothing they can do to combat poverty.
Peterson says poverty is a problem for the poor, and for those who aren’t. He says poverty is a catalyst for so many things that’re going on in our world that affect us. He says it affects international security, terrorism and the development of countries abroad that’re deeply interlink with our own country. He says census figures show almost 10-percent of Iowans live below the poverty line and more than one-point-two billion people live below the international poverty line. The forum is at 7:30 tonight at the Hotel Fort Des Moines in downtown Des Moines.