Enrich Yourself. Save Humanity. Taste Heaven.

Once upon a time there was a man frustrated with the world. He complained to an Imam, asking him why Allah would allow the world to continue in such a state. The Imam didn’t answer but instead asked him to go walk outside with him. The frustrated man, although confused about the Imam’s motive, agreed and went walking outside with him.
As they were walking and talking, they came upon a street of squalid conditions scattered with poor people. They were dressed in shabby, hole- filled rags and their eyes screamed “Feed me. Please!”

The frustrated man turned to the Imam, his face blotched red with fury. “See! See, what state these people are in? Why doesn’t Allah help them?”

The Imam turned to him and said confidently. “He did. He sent you.”

Done? Finished reading that? Feel a bit better about the world? Ready to leave this website? How much time did that take you to read? 30 seconds? How much is 30 seconds worth?

For a Super Bowl Advertisement- it’s worth 2.1 million dollars. For places all over the world, half a woman’s life.

Wait, just one minute.

Maternal Deaths

One woman just died.

Every minute, a woman somewhere dies in pregnancy or childbirth. This adds up to 1,400 women dying each day-an estimated 529,000 each year-from pregnancy-related cause.

At least it is claimed that they die from pregnancy related causes, but what is the real underlying cause of their deaths? Poverty.

Take a look at the difference between maternal deaths in developing countries and developed countries. “Nearly all maternal deaths (99 percent) occur in the developing world”. “Many of these [deaths] could be prevented by a combination of monitoring during pregnancy and simple drug treatment.”

Obviously these women are not getting these simple treatments. Why not? The obvious reason- they can’t afford them (poverty) and they’re not educated about these treatments. Why aren’t they educated? It goes back to the fact that many of them are living in poverty…

This cycle isn’t very optimistic.

It’s difficult to read the above paragraph and not just want to close this website. After all, we don’t like to read things that disturb us. But, put yourself in these dying women’s shoes.

Wait, most likely they don’t have shoes.

Okay, put yourself in their position, instead.

You don’t get to just turn away. You can’t just click X and escape the horrifying truth. You live it.

Every day. Every hour. Every minute.

Until at last, that final minute…when you die.

Defining Poverty

Poverty is difficult to define. There are different kinds and it varies for each country.

In 1985, the United States set their poverty line at $10,988 dollars. Any family of 4 with an annual salary/income less than $10,988 was thought of as poor.
In Bangladesh, in 1985, the average annual per-person income was $120 dollars. A family earning 10,988 would have been considered wealthy.
In 2001, the World Bank defined extreme poverty as living on less than $1 U.S. dollar per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day.

Stop.

Read that sentence one more time.

Moderate poverty- less than $2 a day. There are 365 days a year. That means a person’s situation is considered moderate poverty if they earn less than $730 a year. People can buy one pair of jeans for $730 dollars.
(You can buy a pair of Cavalli jeans for almost exactly that: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000I62OQE/nextag-apparel0c-20/ref=nosim)

If that is moderate poverty what is extreme poverty? Do people really live in these conditions?

“More than one billion people in the world live on less than one dollar a day.
In total, 2.7 billion struggle to survive on less than two dollars per day.
Poverty in the developing world, however, goes far beyond income poverty. It means having to walk more than one mile everyday simply to collect water and firewood; it means suffering diseases that were eradicated from rich countries decades ago.

Every year eleven million children die-most under the age of five and more than six million from completely preventable causes like malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia.

In some deeply impoverished nations less than half of the children are in primary school and under 20 percent go to secondary school. Around the world, a total of 114 million children do not get even a basic education and 584 million women are illiterate.”

Call it whatever you want: scarcity, shortage, deficiency, lack, dearth, paucity, poor quality, neediness, destitution, hardship, distress, need, privation, indigence, penury, deprivation.

It’s poverty. It’s death. And it’s real. Very real.

And we need to do something about it.

Now.

Facts and Stats

1. Consider the global priorities in spending in 1998:

• Cosmetics in the United States $8 Billion US
• Ice cream in Europe $11 Billion US
• Perfumes in Europe and the United States $12 Billion US
• Pet foods in Europe and the United States $17 Billion US
• Business entertainment in Japan $35 Billion US
• Cigarettes in Europe $50 Billion US
• Alcoholic drinks in Europe $105 Billion US
• Narcotics drugs in the world $400 Billion US
• Military spending in the world $780 Billion US

2. And compare that to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries:

• Basic education for all $6 Billion US
• Water and sanitation for all $9 Billion US
• Reproductive health for all women $12 Billion US
• Basic health and nutrition $13 Billion US

3. Number of children in the world: 2.2 billion
Number in poverty: 1 billion (every second child)
Children out of education worldwide: 121 million

Shelter, safe water and health
For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:

• 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
• 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
• 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)M

Survival for children
Worldwide,

• 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)
• 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation

Health of children
Worldwide,

• 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
• 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)

Source: http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp

Map of those living in extreme Poverty

Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen

Poverty Facts & Stats

Guest Author: Sister Amina