Finding new ways to give aid

Those who would like to find a design - for a practical and practicable process for the elimination of poverty - might like to visit Victory Over Want.

VOW suggests that governments have failed to address problems of world poverty and that a democratic initiative, outside the frontiers of present governments and established international institutions, is required.

That initiative should not be undertaken by the rich only, to minister patronisingly to the needs of the poor. It should be a combined effort by all countries, all regions, all races, all religions. It should be an investigation, an enquiry and a co-operative effort by people of all political persuasions, driven by solving not only the problems of others but, essentially, the problems of every one of us. The effort should be driven by the need to find peace and, even beyond that, to devise means of achieving and maintaining peaceful change.

VOW does not advocate a helter-skelter, revolutionary overthrow of our economic, social and political systems. Instead, it advocates the rational application of the knowledge we have gathered - scientific and other - to create a world society that is progressive and peace-loving and that is free of poverty and the grossest of the inequalities that beset us now.

The task may be difficult and may seem forbidding to many but we can certainly manage it, if we have the will and the preparedness to make those changes that will sustain us, not only as individuals or societies but even as a species. It is what we must do if we are to ensure that we will be capable of survival, in the years and through the generations ahead.