Over 1 billion people around the world live on less than $1.00 a day
Every 3 seconds a child dies of extreme poverty
A very powerful and visual demonstration of the number of deaths from hunger and hunger related causes are the demonstration maps by Poverty.com.
Their hunger map puts a face on the estimated 25,000 people who die of hunger or hunger related causes each day using their world map simulation,
Other simulation maps show that poverty also has a large impact on deaths by; Aids - 1 every 15 seconds mostly in Africa, Pneumonia - 2 million children alone each year, Diarrhea - 1.6 million a year mostly children living with unclean water, unsafe sanitation and or poor hygiene, Tuberculosis - once thought to be under control the number of deaths is once again on the rise with a death rate of over 1.5 million a year, Malaria - close to 90% of malaria cases occur in Africa with over 1 million deaths each year, Measles &; other Childhood Diseases - now slightly less than 1 million a year.
News Items on Poverty
In a press release April 09 2008 the World Bank said high food prices are threatening recent gains in overcoming poverty and malnutrition.
In a press release September 25th 2008 the World Food Programme welcomed the decision that Canada would extend its naval mission of protecting ships carrying humanitarian aid to Somalia.
The release also states that Since August 2006 Canada has provide US $15.7 Million to WFP operations in Somalia "making it the third largest donor to WFP's operation in Somalia as well as worldwide."
WFP facts and figures PDF Download show that in 2007, WPF provide 3.3 million tons of food for 86.1 Million People in 80 Countries worldwide 44.6 million or 51.8% of WPF's beneficiaries reside in Africa.
An Untapped Resource
The Story of GRACE
and HOPE
Grace: love and favour of God………..Webster’s Dictionary
Written after my return from Ghana in summer 2000
Grace just couldn’t believe what was happening, one day her husband was by her side, working and helping to raise their seven children, the next he was deathly ill, and not expected to make it through the night. What would she do, what could she do? Who would help feed and care for the kids now that their father had died so suddenly, would they starve to death? It was just too much to bear. Baby Sarah was so young, she would never remember her father, and the eldest was only 12…she could never do this all alone, surely she could find someone in the village to help. More
It takes a village to raise a child is an old African saying
In a report entitled "It takes a Nation to Raise a Generation" PDF download tabled in November 2007 Campaign 2000 states that 1 in 8 children in Canada - 788,000 - live in poverty when income is measured after taxes. Before taxes 1 in 6 or 1.13 million children live in poverty and that 41% of children living in poverty live in families with at least 1 income earner working full time.
It is estimated that In Canada between 800,000 and 1 million children live in poverty.
Raising the Roof, a national charity dedicated to long term solutions to homelessness, states that approximately one third of the homeless in Canada are aged 16 to 24 that's about 65,000 young adults with out a place to call home.
Raising Awareness
They are trying to raise awareness of, the Hidden Homeless, the four out of five homeless Canadians who do not live on the street but in church basements or abandoned buildings, in cars or on someones couch. Many of these are children, some are seniors who can not afford conventional housing on their fixed incomes, others are adults with full time low paying jobs. Raising awareness links are to short radio spots that really hit home.
With roughly 80% of the homeless in Canada being identified as The Hidden Homeless here are 10 Facts about the Hidden Homeless and 10 Things You can do to help
The United Nations World Habitat Day was just 9 short days before Blog Action Day on Poverty.
October 6th, 2008, the first Monday in October, was designated World Habitat Day with the hope that we would reflect on the state of our communities and the basic right to adequate shelter for all.
One does not need to visit a third world country to see that Poverty and Homelessness are often found hand in hand.
What else can You do
Contact Habitat For Humanity in your community and see what it would take for a group from your club, church or social network to help build a family a home.
Remember they are not getting a hand out but a hand up.
They pay for the house based on its appraised value when completed
There is a Misconception that the people who get a Habitat House do not have to pay for it,
Find out if your community's development plans include affordable and accessible housing, become an advocate for such housing if necessary.
Donate to local agencies that are working to help the homeless and or the disadvantaged in your community.
By helping to provide a Hand Up Not A Hand Out
We are helping people with dignity.
I would Challenge each and everyone to reach out and touch someone be it as close as a neighbour going through a hard time to some one half way around the world. It does not matter if you donate to a local food bank, or travel halfway around the world to help, educate, build housing destroyed in a disaster, or offer aid and assistance. If we all did just one thing the world would be better for it and so would we.
No longer will I sit on the sidelines and watch
as a suffering world revolves around me.
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Kathy - Your Social conscience has certainly affected our lives and how we look at the world around us since your return from Ghana in 2000
The Story of Grace and Hope and what one person could do to effect an entire area actually opened my eyes to the issues and indeed changed our outlook on life around us.
David Mensah has completely changed the the lives of the people in the areas that Grid and NEA works
There were 1500 women involved as at January 2008 - in the Deg and South Mo area (9 villages in the Deg and 22 villages in South Mo) which is where I went in 2000
By providing a hand up the organization has helped to develop sustainable programs that are becoming self sufficient.
"Many of the aspects of the program are now sustainable in the Deg area. Communities have been provided with water, community sanitation projects, and women’s co-operatives in the 9 Deg villages are able to expand through peanuts paid back by past active members. Previously trained women leaders manage these groups. The Deg project is different from the Janga project in that from it, the South Mo project (Project 3) has been launched. Much of the infrastructure set up in Carpenter is used to facilitate the community development initiatives in the Project 3 area, which has drastically reduced the cost of operation. For example, the staff member who coordinates the women co-ops in Project 2 also coordinates the co-ops in the 24 villages of Project 3. In 2007, the Deg project saw its first financial returns from several components of the agricultural sector which is an indicator that it is on its way to sustainability."
Kathy,
Your exceptional way of presenting the facts reaches deep down in to the reader's heart and soul....it's very disturbing to read that even in Canada, we have an extremely high percentage of children living in poverty. There seems to be such an imbalance of spending in our country...so much goes to the military and political programs and yet so little is spent on helping the poor and struggling.
Jo
Jo - sometimes it takes a jolt to open our eyes to the world around us ... a simple thing like a radio commercial that I would have never listened to before causes me to look into the eyes of the children in the car next to me and wonder.
Kathy- I worked with many Canadians overseas that were volunteering their time and efforts to help children affected by poverty. I will never forget, and like you some of the experiences have changed how I look at things. I like how your Organization taught women, and now they work with others, and that the programs are becoming sustainable. That is when you know it's good, when the locals can run it, and help themselves :)
As to children in my area....I live in one of the poorest towns. The retirees are well off, but the schools are full of children that qualify for federal funds because of abject poverty. I see all the time how poverty affects these children. Locally we have very few organizations to help, except for a daily lunch program and help during the Holidays.
Are you ever going back?
Kathy M - It is the children that I feel for the most. I was amazed when I was in Africa the thirst for knowledge that they had, even in the litlltle backcountry area where we were. I believe that education is one of the keys to helping them become self sufficient
Antonio - this is very interesting I will have to check it out
"No longer will I sit on the sidelines and watch as a suffering world revolves around me."
I am with you on that...and I really appreciate all the sources you give...I believe I am on a new mission!
Midori - After yesterday I am sure your not alone. While only a few of us found Jo-Anne's group there are an enourmous amount of blogs here on active/rain about Blog Action Day 2008