Big Picture of Poverty

Do you have a dream for your future? Most of us do, whether we imagine what we’ll be when we grow up, or what kind of difference we’re going to make to other people.

Millions of kids around the world all share one dream. They imagine eating a healthy meal, going to school and seeing a doctor when they’re sick. They dream of breaking out of poverty. If we all work together, we can make this dream come true for children all over the world.

A person is living in poverty when they don’t have what they need to meet their basic needs.

Basic needs are:

• Food
• Shelter
• Clean water
• Health care

Today, almost half the world—that’s close to three billion people—struggle to live on less than $2 a day. That’s not nearly enough to get the right food to eat. More than 815 million people in developing countries are hungry.

Kids who live in poverty can’t plan their futures. This is a big problem because part of being a kid is figuring out how your life is going to be as you grow up. When you’re sick or hungry, it’s hard to do well in school, or dream about what you’ll do when you graduate. Kids need food to learn, grow and stay healthy so they have a chance at a better future.

Fighting Poverty: We Can Do it Together

How big is the world? Is it pretty big? Is it HUGE? Actually, it’s a lot smaller than we think! There are more than six billion people in the world, but we all have to share the limited clean water, food and other basics that are available. It’s everyone’s job to help people living in poverty get what they need.

Think about it: the choices we make affect people in other parts of the world too.

For example, if someone wears a T-shirt that’s made in a way that hurts people in India, they aren’t doing their best to help Indian people.

If we work together, we can do a lot better for everyone.

Did you know that if all developed countries gave away less than one penny for every dollar of their money to helping developing countries, there would be enough money to meet all the Millennium Development Goals?

So far, only five countries—Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden—are giving this much.

It’s up to people like you—who care about making the world a fairer place—to give kids in the developing world the help they need to break out of poverty. Let’s start working together!

Poverty and the Millennium Development Goals: Targets We Can Meet

The two Millennium Development Goals that relate to poverty are:

Goal: Cut Poverty and Hunger in Half

The Challenge

• Almost half the world is living on less than $2 a day.
• 815 million people in the developing world aren’t getting enough food to eat—that’s enough people to fill the largest NFL stadium almost 9,000 times!

Goal: Make Sure Fewer Children Die Because of Poverty

The Challenge

• Almost 11 million kids under the age of five die each year from sicknesses that could be stopped, like AIDS and malaria.
• 98 percent of these kids live in the developing world.

Causes: Why Do Some People Have So Little?

Can you imagine living on $1 a day? You wouldn’t even be able to buy one meal with a dollar! It seems impossible, but this is life for one billion people—that’s about 15 percent of the world.

Why do some people have so little, while others have so much?

There are many smaller problems that cause the bigger problem of poverty.

Causes of Poverty:

• No education: Children need to learn the basics, like how to read, if they’re going to get ahead.
• Health problems: HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases are hard for the people who are sick, but they’re also hard for the countries where these diseases are a big problem—there isn’t enough government help to reach all these sick people.
• Hunger: When people are struggling just to find food each day, it’s impossible to plan for the future.

North America: In a Position to Help

Every day, Americans buy 88,168 iPods, 2,400,000 Whoppers and 500,000 Twinkies. These three things add up to millions of dollars spent each day.

Think about it: a lot of kids in sub-Saharan Africa live for an entire day on the change needed to buy one Twinkie! We’re in a position to help other people who aren’t so lucky.

But even though many people have money to spend way beyond their basic needs, poverty is still the reality for a lot of people, no matter what part of the world they live in. In developed countries like England, the United States, Canada and France, up to one quarter of children are living in poverty.

We are fortunate enough to have services like food banks and homeless shelters that help many people. In other parts of the world, these places don’t exist and hungry children have to find their own way.

Global Status: Where the World is Now

Poverty happens everywhere. But people in developing countries experience poverty in a different way than people in developed countries.

What Poverty Is Like in the Developing World:

• Children are not just coming to school hungry; many don’t come to school at all.
• If you are poor and sick, there are no free clinics to help you.
• If you are homeless, there are no shelters to take you in for the night.

Most people in developing countries are struggling to survive, so poverty can start to seem normal—but this is a dangerous way to think. If the world starts to think poverty is normal, people won’t do their part to help out.

Facts About Poverty:

• One-third of deaths are related to poverty.
• 800 million people go to bed hungry every day.
• Half the children under five in parts of Africa and South Asia are malnourished.
• Someone dies of starvation every three and half seconds. Most of these deaths are children under the age of five.

A Story You Should Hear about Poverty

Take Action Against Poverty

There are many of actions you can take to help end poverty in the developing world. Try these as a start.