Yale University will be hosting a conference of interest to the global development community in April—the Unite For Sight Fifth Annual International Health & Development Conference: Building Global Health For Today and Tomorrow. The keynote speakers will be: Susan Blumenthal, Jim Yong Kim, Jeffrey Sachs, and Sonia Ehrlich Sachs. Find out more about the conference speakers here.

There will be over 180 speakers on topics such as: “Addressing Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies is a Key Building Block to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals”, “Global Health and the Internet Panel”, and”Youth Engagement in Development Stategies.”

Early bird registration ends January 30th. You can learn more at Unite For Site’s conference page.

Today, students from Swarthmore College participated in a Hunger Banquet, an interactive event hosted by Amnesty International. Tim Burke, associate professor of history, moderated a discussion about world hunger and global inequality. Students also gave short presentations encouraging others to take action. They spoke about efforts–such as microcredit–that have made strides in advancing global development. The main goal of the Hunger Banquet was to offer students an interactive lesson and encourage the students to experience an emotional connection with the global poor, without the usual roster of starving children imagery. Representatives from Oxfam, an international relief group that works towards solving hunger, poverty and injustice, also attended the event.

Amnesty campus chapter president Linda Wang said, “I got involved with Oxfam in high school…and organized a successful hunger banquet at my high school, and have wanted to see it done on campus.”

Sound like a great idea for your community? Visit Oxfam’s website to find out how you can host your own Hunger Banquet.

Read more about Swarthmore’s event in their online newspaper.