Halfway across the globe, we are allowing a global emergency to take place under our watch. There are 1.2 billion people in the world living in extreme poverty, on less than a dollar a day. The extreme poor do not have access to clean water, sanitation, health care or nutrition. Every day, more than 20,000 of these voiceless individuals perish because their most basic needs are not met.There is a fierce debate among scholars of economic development today about how to eliminate the "poverty trap." Some scholars believe that more and better foreign aid will allow the world's poorest to reach the bottom rung of the ladder of development. Staunch neoliberal supporters of the free market argue that foreign aid is ineffective and keeps poor countries mired in poverty and disease. These critics of foreign aid assert that past decades of funneling aid into sub-Saharan Africa have produced few results. With many lives at stake and very little time, such fiery debates have stalled the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to eradicate extreme poverty. But the correct approach lies somewhere in between the two extremes.

Accountable foreign aid is necessary for the economic and social development of low-income countries. In order to reap the benefits of the global free market, the world's poor need to have access to commercial supply chains, receive primary education, sustain their emerging rural economies, ensure that their children are properly nourished and sustain the population through malaria and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Developed countries can provide foreign aid to sponsor measurable and affordable interventions such as roads, free and compulsory primary education, fertilizer and modern agricultural techniques, maternal and infant healthcare, insecticide-treated bed nets, and antiretroviral treatments. Furthermore, these investments do not create economic dependence, but rather develop the foundations of a self-sustaining economy. These interventions ensure that the basic needs of the impoverished are met and that globalization will not leave developing countries behind. And Brandeis students can be key players at the forefront of this international initiative.

Members of the Positive Foundations club at Brandeis are leading a development project at the United Nations and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Positive Foundations is scheduled to become the first student-led group at a single university in the nation to sponsor and partner with a "Millennium Village", a community of 5,000 living in sub-Saharan Africa on less than a dollar a day. The Millennium Villages Project is a community-led approach to bottom-up development, leaving the community with a self-sustaining rural economy after five years. Interventions include the improvement of public health, education, water, sanitation, energy and transportation systems. The development of infrastructure and agriculture effectively lifts these communities out of the poverty trap where they can independently operate on the global free market.

The inspiring opportunity to sponsor and partner with a Millennium Village should be viewed as the ideal social investment at the right time at the perfect institution. The Millennium Villages Project is a secure investment with established guidelines and measurable results that will globalize Brandeis' strong commitment to social justice. Sustainable international development is a worthy cause that will unite the entire Brandeis community and enhance the image of the University.

Connecting with a Millennium Village will give Brandeis unparalleled access to speakers and officials from the United Nations as well as socially active celebrities, which will surely attract positive press and publicity. Building a relationship with communities in Africa will allow for unique faculty research and study-abroad opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. Most importantly, partnering with a Millennium Village will lift 5,000 people out of the poverty trap and put Brandeis at the cutting edge of a global movement.

At this exciting time, both at Brandeis and in the world, students are presented with unprecedented opportunities to implement positive change in the international community. The Millennium Village initiative and the Positive Foundations framework are sustainable and replicable models with boundless potential to be scaled up across the globe. It is time to join the fight to eradicate extreme poverty one campus and one village at a time.

The writer is executive director of Positive Foundations and a member of the Class of 2010.