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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