MCC Washington Memo

(Click here to send the below letter directly to your members of Congress.)

Dear [ Member of Congress ]

Debt costs lives. In the world’s most impoverished countries, resources are diverted away from citizens’ basic needs–shelter, education, health care–and used to pay debt service to rich countries and institutions.

Even after the life-saving debt relief provided to date, the poorest countries still send $100 million every day out to our government and international institutions in debt payments. Meanwhile, 30,000 children die every day of easily preventable diseases.

The World Bank estimates that an additional 53 million people will be forced to live on less than $1 per day as a result of the global economic downturn. For people already living on the margins, this will mean escalating levels of malnutrition and disease and drastically reduced access to essential healthcare and basic education.

The Jubilee Act will help. It calls for expanded debt cancellation without harmful economic policy conditions to help all the poor countries that need it to reach the Millennium Development Goals. It also urges responsible lending in the future to avoid a new debt crisis and policies to create a more just global economic system.

Debt cancellation is one of the most efficient forms of foreign assistance and has a proven record of success. Poverty-reducing expenditures have risen by 75% in countries that have received debt relief, with funds used to abolish school fees, provide basic health care, build schools, hire teachers, and improve access to safe drinking water.

It would cost only 40 cents per U.S. resident to cancel the debt owed to the U.S. by 24 impoverished countries. Our pocket change can make global systemic change!

Sincerely,

[ Your Name and Address ]

(Click here to send the below letter directly to your members of Congress.)