How The Institute for Conscious Global Change was Started

New York, N.Y.   Growing up in a political family, I have always been politically and civically conscious. Everyone in our family learned that he/she had a responsibility and obligation to help those less fortunate.  Coming from a British Commonwealth country, I understood the geographical, political and social happenings of the day as well as an awareness of other cultures and countries.

As such,  I have always kept abreast of social and political events both locally and internationally.  After my daughter graduated college, I put my focus on doing something about poverty in developing countries, for which there seem to be no real organized plan.  It appeared the governments and international bodies had accepted the idea that some people were going to be poor, some were going to be rich and that's how life would be.  Well, I do not believe that!!!  I feel that all of us on the planet have different roles to play and these roles are essential to the development of the individual as a soul and by extension, the development of the whole human family.

Having lots of money or no money is not what makes anyone wealthy or poor.  What makes one poor is not realizing the inter-connection and relationship that all of us share with each other, along with our obligation and responsibility to each other, and all life in all the kingdoms.  What makes us poor is not knowing that our destinies are tied together. Poverty, to my thinking, is to live in excess while your brother and sister struggle to stay alive! That is my definition of poverty.

So, in that respect, many of those who possess minimum material possessions have a lot to teach those who society defined as rich.  The wise of all ages have all known that it is consciousness in the end that truly determines true power, true wealth and true leadership.

Thirteen years ago around the beginning of the millennium, I began to think seriously of how I could make a difference in fundamentally and permanently changing the way humanity lives on this planet. In October of 2006, I had the inspiration to sit at the computer and concretize the ideas for making this change happen.  This is when I wrote down the concept of a visual plan that would begin a different discussion about the quality of life that ALL humans deserve to have. We should not be content to sit by and watch one disaster after the other happen while accepting that there is nothing that can be done. I believe development can be done in a comprehensive, holistic and sustainable way.

Growing up in Jamaica, all school children were embedded with the statement: “The word can’t is written in the dictionary of fools. ” All one has to do is believe and work towards making anything happen that they want.

I knew eradicating poverty is a daunting task. After writing the proposal for The Millennium Earth Project: A Visual Framework for Sustainable Development , I put my hands to the sky and voiced: “All who are to help me make this a reality please come forward!”  And, they have come! Thank you to all who have been a part of this adventure so far and to all who will come.

In the beginning the name of the project was titled “The Global Marshall Plan.” The name came from the plan to rebuild Europe after the Second World War. My question to myself was: Why are we content accepting a substandard quality of life for our brothers and sisters in these countries?

I wrote and filed the Articles of Incorporation with the State of New York on July 12, 2007. The Institute for Conscious Global Change (ICGC) was born.  We applied for and later granted the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in 2010.  I knew ICGC did not have the funds to fundamentally change the lives of the peoples in these 49 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and 54 Developed Countries (DCS), but I knew we now had the technology-which we could use to develop tangible solutions concerning the problems facing over 2.4 billion people on the planet.

In September 2000, building upon a decade of major United Nations conferences and summits, world leaders came together at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and set out a series of time-bound targets—with a deadline of 2015.

Thus the Millennium Development Goals with their targets were established.

Building on the concept embedded in the UN Charter of 1946 for the involvement of Civil Society in the work of the United Nations, ICGC decided to align its vision with the MDGs tenets to create a comprehensive virtual development model for each of the LDCs and DCs.

To facilitate our work with the UN, ICGC applied for Special Consultative Status by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). We are very happy to say that on July 23, 2012, the ECOSOC Committee approved our application, and we were granted Consultative Status.  This status now entitles us to designate official representatives to the United Nations Headquarters in New York and the United Nations offices in Geneva and Vienna. Our representatives will be able to register for and participate in events, conferences and activities of the United Nations, and organizations in general and special consultative status may designate authorized representatives to sit as observers at public meetings of ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies, General Assembly, Human Rights Council and other United Nations intergovernmental decision-making bodies.

The Work of ICGC

We realized that we could use a Geographic Information System (GIS) program to achieve our goals. GIS is a mapping software that works hand-in-hand with Google Earth and would allow us to pinpoint country specific MDG based issues and solutions in interactive country specific maps. More specifically, we will display the needs of each country-infrastructural, agricultural, medical, educational, economic, environmental, and developmental-highlighting the problems in one main center so the solutions can be more easily sought and served. Research is both qualitative and quantitative, form local communities all the way to government so that everyone can have a say in the development of their country.

We plan to make our contribution to the world by offering this "Visual Solution" development model to the United Nations and interested countries.

Our first initiative is to create virtual-yet-tangible solutions to the issues facing three selected countries – one from each of the three regions where the 49 LDCs exist: Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. The breakdown of LDCs per region is as follows: 14 in Asia, 34 in Africa, and one in the Caribbean. Afghanistan, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Haiti, are the three countries selected for this first phase of our work.

We have designed the virtual development plan to serve as a call to action – by providing comprehensive and detailed information about each country – with the collective goal of moving all 49 countries from LDC status to Developed Country status.

Please join us in our efforts to raise the quality of life for those most in need.

ICGC is on track to complete the three prototypes of Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan by December 2013.  You can help us complete this first phase of our work with your financial contributions.

Visit us and keep track of our development work at: www.consciousglobalchange.org and www.millenniumearth.org

Please watch our video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ_JdfxpjQU

Together we can create a different and better world.  Please join me in making this a reality by 2030!

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