The 100 People Foundation’s website www.100people.org is an amazing and wonderful effort to help us understand who makes up the 7 billion people on the planet at this time and the issues and challenges everyone faces (specifically – water, food, transportation, health, economy, education, energy, shelter, war, and waste). It is one of the most interesting educational and social consciousness raising efforts that I have seen. The group states their mission as follows:
Picture this complex world simply – the world as 100 people.
7 billion of us share this planet.
Who are we?
What do we look like?
What can we learn from others?
Mission
The 100 People Foundation helps students to better understand the complex issues facing our planet and the resources we share.
By framing the global population as 100 people, our media makes education more engaging and effective, and improves students’ abilities to remember and relate to what they learn.
Vision
We are traveling the globe to meet and create portraits of the 100 people representing all 7 billion of us sharing the planet. Our vision is to create documentary films, photography, and educational tools that facilitate face-to-face introductions among the people of the world in ways that cultivate respect, create dialogue, and inspire global citizenship.
Educational Impact
Teachers from schools on every continent have used our media to enrich their lesson plans and engage students in learning about the world population — starting with their neighborhood. Using the 100 People framework, students interview and create portraits of individuals they admire most in their communities. The portraits are then exhibited at their schools and on our website, and inviting students, teachers and community members into a global conversation about their place in the world. Through this process of statistically and visually bridging the local with the global, students develop an equalizing and expansive framework for seeing the people they share the planet’s resources with and for activating their role as global citizens.
Here are their Statistics:
If the World were 100 PEOPLE:
- 50 would be female
- 50 would be male
- 26 would be children
- There would be 74 adults,
- 8 of whom would be 65 and older
- There would be:
- 60 Asians
- 15 Africans
- 14 people from the Americas
- 11 Europeans
- 33 Christians
- 22 Muslims
- 14 Hindus
- 7 Buddhists
- 12 people who practice other religions
- 12 people who would not be aligned with a religion
- 12 would speak Chinese
- 5 would speak Spanish
- 5 would speak English
- 3 would speak Arabic
- 3 would speak Hindi
- 3 would speak Bengali
- 3 would speak Portuguese
- 2 would speak Russian
- 2 would speak Japanese
- 62 would speak other languages
- 83 would be able to read and write; 17 would not
- 7 would have a college degree
- 22 would own or share a computer
- 77 people would have a place to shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 23 would not
- 1 would be dying of starvation
- 15 would be undernourished
- 21 would be overweight
- 87 would have access to safe drinking water
- 13 people would have no clean, safe water to drink
Sources: 2012 – Fritz Erickson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Ferris State University (Formerly Dean of Professional and Graduate Studies, University of Wisconsin – Green Bay) and John A. Vonk, University of Northern Colorado, 2006; Returning Peace Corps Volunteers of Madison Wisconsin, Unheard Voices: Celebrating Cultures from the Developing World, 1992; Donella H. Meadows, The Global Citizen, May 31, 1990.
Watch a brief video introduction to If the World were 100 People below:
~Jay Kshatri
www.ThinkSmarterWorld.com
