The Problem
Extreme poverty is real, it’s a big problem and it affects real people. What does that mean and what does that feel like?
Antony is a student in Kenya. Recently, he wrote a letter to us and said:
"When I finished my grade school in November 2005, I had no hope of joining high school, having been born in a family of three children and an orphaned cousin all being taken care of by our single mother. … I had little to celebrate. … I applied for a chance for the scholarship and my greatest joy was when I was informed that I had got a chance. I was so happy and for once in life, I saw I had an opportunity to dream."
Watch a video of Antony:
If they can’t go to school, their opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty drastically declines. You couldn’t do much without a high school diploma, right? Well, neither can these kids. To improve their lives, and their communities, they need to go to school. But, unfortunately, this basic human right is not accessible in all areas of the world.
Families we work with request education more than any other benefit we provide. They desperately want their children to go to school.
This is what poverty feels like – not having the opportunity to attend high school. Not being able to afford a basic education.
A recent letter from Dalton, who was sponsored for 8 years and is now working:
Every day, 30,000 children die from hunger and easily preventable diseases. 30,000. That could easily be more children than are in your entire school district at home. Every day.
More than 300 million children will go to bed hungry tonight. Really think about that number – 300 million. Only eight percent are victims of famine or other emergency situations. More than 90 percent are suffering long-term malnourishment.
This is what poverty feels like – going to school hungry, and going to bed hungry. Not having enough food to eat every day.
Life in a developing country is hard for us to imagine. Watch this slideshow to get a small picture of what it's like.
Houses may be made of whatever can be found - a few scraps of sheet metal, maybe some cardboard, sticks, or discarded wood.
A lot of the time, there isn't a floor – just dirt.
The roofs are almost always leaky, so in the rainy season, the floor is really just mud, which is especially difficult for those who can’t afford beds or chairs.
A typical house is about the size of an American one-car garage.
In some areas and at some times of the year, it can be very cold, because there is no insulation, and often there are holes in the walls.
This is what poverty feels like.
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Can you imagine dying from diarrhea? No, that basically doesn’t happen in a country like the United States. But, seven million children die each year from five completely preventable and treatable conditions: diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, measles and malnutrition.
You probably haven’t heard of some of those, right? That’s because many countries eradicated these diseases, or provided easily obtainable medication for them, decades ago. But, children in poor countries don’t have access to those easy treatments.
That means that 20,000 children die each day from conditions that could be cured with simple, affordable things – vaccinations, bed nets, food, clean drinking water and antibiotics. But, they just don’t have access to those things. So, 20,000 children a day keep dying.
This is what poverty feels like.
To sum it up, all of these conditions lead to a lack of choices in life for each of these children and their families. They can’t afford school fees, enough food to eat every day, better living conditions, or medical treatment. These are the obstacles poverty creates.
Now that you’ve read about the problem , read about the solution. There is hope. There is a way to help.