– September 17, 2013 –

Join other faith advocates from around the U.S. on Wednesday, September 18th for a national Congressional Call-in day to protect international poverty-focused humanitarian and development assistance.

Call your members of Congress on Wednesday, September 18, 2013 at 1-800-826-3688. If you need to find how to contact your Member of the House of Representatives visit www.house.gov and visit www.senate.gov for your state’s U.S. Senators.

Contacting your elected leaders is a more effective form of advocacy than most people think. On many issues, communication from thoughtful constituents can swing the balance.

By contacting your members of Congress about the need to protect poverty-focused development assistance, you’re not only working to change hearts and minds, you’re helping supportive elected officials avoid criticism for simply doing the right thing.

Your message has the potential to make a big difference in the lives of God’s most vulnerable children.

Sample Script for your Congressional Call:

I urge you to support full funding for international poverty-focused humanitarian and development assistance. I also ask that members of Congress put an end to sequestration, the devastating across-the-board cuts that threaten to exacerbate poverty and hunger around the world.

Poverty-focused foreign assistance comprises less than 1 percent of the entire budget, but that small amount of funding has helped us cut extreme poverty in half over the last decade. While this is a remarkable achievement, too many of God’s children are still suffering. We must increase–not cut–this lifesaving assistance.

As a nation built on faithful principles, disproportionate cuts to poverty-focused development assistance go against our most deeply held values. These cuts would unnecessarily jeopardize the lives of our most vulnerable brothers and sisters, especially young children, and further destabilize fragile societies.

For these reasons, I ask that you support full funding levels for all poverty-focused development and humanitarian programs within the International Affairs Budget.