Blog Action Day 2008 — Poverty
Blog Action Day 2008 — Poverty
Today, 15th October, is the day that many bloggers from around the world will unite to talk about a single subject on their blogs — “poverty”. Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters. You will probably (hopefully) see subjects like this on many of the blogs you visit today.
While I was wondering how I might address this important issue, here on this blog, I spent some time doing a little research. And some of what I read surprised, and upset, me. Despite all the campaigns over the last few years, particularly those like Make Poverty History, I hadn’t fully grasped some of the facts and figures involved. I’m sure that’s down to me, and not a lack of effort on the part of those campaigning.
Here are some of the things I discovered:
- Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
- The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.
- Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
- 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.
- 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).
This is where I found this information, Global Issues website: do, please, explore more of the site — it’s a website that talks about, “social, political, economic and environmental issues that affect us all”.
With such big issues, it feels as though there is little that one person can do to help to alleviate the problems. But there are in fact a range of things that anyone can do. One of the ways most of us could help, is through microloans. Microloans are small loans, as little as $25, that help entrepreneurs in developing areas lift themselves out of poverty.
Kiva is one of the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending websites, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. These entrepreneurs use their loans to start businesses that lift them and their communities out of poverty. It doesn’t take much and the majority of loans are fully repaid!
There are some more suggestions for individuals on the Blog Action Day website.
Do, please, think and pray about the issues. And see if there is anything, however small, that you feel you can do to help the world’s poorest people. Together, we can make a difference.
