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Extreme poverty. Defined as living on less than $1 per day, it is a daily crisis that impacts more than 1.2 billion individuals worldwide. It leads to more than 8 million deaths every year, and more than 20,000 deaths everyday. U2’s Bono has called it “a global emergency”. Here's more about the emergency that is extreme poverty:
Fast facts:
- Every year six million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday.
- More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day...300 million are children.
- Everyday HIV/AIDS kills 6,000 people and another 8,200 people are infected with this deadly virus.
To address extreme poverty, 189 countries met in September 2000 and committed to achieving the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger (halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day; halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger)
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
These eight goals are tangibly supported on the ground through the Millennium Villages Project. To date, 78 villages in 10 nations of sub-Saharan
Learn More by visiting:
* Millenium Promise and Columbia University to learn more about the Millennium Villages Project.
* The U.N. Millenium Project to learn more about the UN Millennium Development Goals
*Making a financial contribution to The Millenium Promise,
or by visiting Omni-Peace.com when buying your next shirt. Now, you can be a conscious consumer who supports the Millennium Promise.
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Extreme poverty can be eradicated with your support. For further dialogue and/or if you have questions, please contact us at svaghar@brandeis.edu or swerfel@brandeis.edu, and look out for an update on Sunday.
3 comments:
I love the Millenium promise...just the idea that poverty can be eliminated within our lifetime!
Read "No Greater Love" by Mother Teresa - the chapters on the poor and poverty sum up what needs to be done initally beautifully - GIVE, SACRIFICE to the needy their basic needs first, all the while showing them LOVE.
Then focus on changing the HEARTS and MINDS of the people you are serving! Don't just give them the tools or throw money at them and immediately expect them to be self-sustainable. Then snicker or revert to "I told you so" thinking if they fail.
Every human being on this earth has the birthright to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!
Bridgette
Sadly the MDGs and Millenium Promise are not being achieved. We are not reducing poverty at a rate that will get us there in the next 15 years, let alone our lifetimes. In fact, poverty in the United States is increasing by millions of people every year.
Anyway, thanks for spreading information about this important topic!
You might want to check out the Hunger, Poverty, & Homelessness Forums.
Thanks to both of you for your helpful comments. True, we may be long off-- and even off target-- of the MDGs and other guideposts, but at the very least we can try to get there. And, perhaps most importantly, we can elect leaders who value taking us there.
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