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Post by Love, Jenni ¤ on Feb 19, 2008 19:35:38 GMT
Poverty Facts Half the world-nearly three billion people-live on less than two dollars a day. 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. In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much. A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world’s poorest 2.5 billion people. According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.
That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year.
In 2000 they're were 2.2 billion children. 1 billion of them live in poverty 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy). 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized. 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom).
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Post by ~♥Alexa♥~ on Feb 23, 2008 2:29:08 GMT
Unfortunatley if it was as easy as giving these countries money, poverty would no longer exist. The fact is that most of the less economically developed countries are dictorships whom use the money to finance their armies, they are not stable countries and as a result charity money often lines the pockets of the politicians rather than where it should be.
In addition to this, countries such as Ghana and Sierre Leone along with various others on the African continent are already in large amounts of debt and often borrow more in order to pay back some debtors making the situation worse. The climate doesn't help either with it being humid and dry, some places recieve less than 1mm of rainfall a year and as a result there's drought.
There are so many other reasons poverty exists and whilst it's a shame, it's also a complicated matter which can't just be solved with an influx of money.
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Post by thesneaky on Feb 24, 2008 12:07:29 GMT
Couldn't have said it better myself!
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