PovertyEducation.org
Educating to Initiate Change
Currently, more than eight million people around the world die each year because they are too poor to stay alive. Every morning the newspapers could report, "More than 20'000 people perished yesterday of extreme poverty." The stories would put the stark numbers in context; up to 8000 children dead of malaria, 5000 mothers and fathers dead of tuberculosis, 7500 young adults dead of AIDS, and thousands more dead of diarrhea, respiratory infection, and other killer diseases that prey on bodies weakened by chronic hunger. The poor die in hospital wards that lack drugs, in villages that lack anti-malarial bed nets, in houses that lack safe drinking water. They die namelessly, without public comment. Sadly, such stories rarely get written. Most people are unaware of the daily struggles for survival, and the vast number of impoverished people around the world who lose that struggle.
-Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty
As one billion people throughout Europe and North America enjoy the wonderful luxuries of modern health care, education and state of the art technology, one sixth of humanity lay dying of starvation and treatable illness. Those citizens living in "extreme poverty" (defined as surviving on less than $1.25 per day) are unable to afford the vital resources necessary to sustain life, including safe drinking water, tools to grow large amounts of food, and shelter from serious diseases like Malaria. The casualties of extreme poverty are extraordinary; since 2000, more than 80 million people have died as a result of this tragic crisis. Obviously it is our moral imperative to try to prevent another 80 million deaths from occurring over the next decade using everything in our power. Luckily, I believe that although we Canadians are situated a long distance away from Africa –the epicenter of the extreme poverty crisis–there are several things which we can do to help Earth's poorest people become dramatically wealthier.
I will present these solutions later in the website.
Despite the shocking enormity of this problem, the Canadian public still seems largely unaware of the severe effect extreme poverty has on mankind. It seems as though there is a shortage of information on the subject; news stories from faraway places like Africa scarcely get mentioned in the newspaper or on television, and although a quick internet search (on Google or Facebook) may reveal a multitude of web pages related to extreme poverty, the vast majority of these places simply state startling statistics (such as those mentioned above) but then fail to explain the deeper science behind the issue: How did these countries get so poor in the first place? What exactly is causing them to remain stuck in extreme poverty while the rest of the world progresses? Is globalization good or bad for these countries? What role can foreign aid play in solving the extreme poverty crisis? Which foreign policies are helping the poor and which are hurting them?
If activists attempting to end extreme poverty do not know the answers to these questions, not only will they be unable to successfully debate their views and initiate change, but they might even accidentally promote policies which harm those in the poorest countries instead of help them.
It is my belief that the single greatest thing an activist can do to help bring an end to extreme poverty is to become educated on the subject;
so to help educate the public and empower activists, I have created a website which will explain the issue in depth and answer the questions above.
Thus the purpose of this website is not only to raise awareness about this issue, but also to educate the public on the science behind development economics; the study exploring how to turn extremely poor countries into rich ones. In order to create change, activists must arm themselves not only with startling statistics, but also with a deeper understanding of which specific interventions will successfully help the poor and knowledge of why those interventions will work. By combining human compassion with a profound knowledge of development science, I believe that activists can be vastly more successful in pushing for the political reforms needed to help Earth's poorest citizens become wealthy. I encourage all poverty activists to read the rest of the pages in this website and empower themselves with the knowledge they need to help completely eradicate extreme poverty within our lifetime.
I will present these solutions later in the website.
Despite the shocking enormity of this problem, the Canadian public still seems largely unaware of the severe effect extreme poverty has on mankind. It seems as though there is a shortage of information on the subject; news stories from faraway places like Africa scarcely get mentioned in the newspaper or on television, and although a quick internet search (on Google or Facebook) may reveal a multitude of web pages related to extreme poverty, the vast majority of these places simply state startling statistics (such as those mentioned above) but then fail to explain the deeper science behind the issue: How did these countries get so poor in the first place? What exactly is causing them to remain stuck in extreme poverty while the rest of the world progresses? Is globalization good or bad for these countries? What role can foreign aid play in solving the extreme poverty crisis? Which foreign policies are helping the poor and which are hurting them?
If activists attempting to end extreme poverty do not know the answers to these questions, not only will they be unable to successfully debate their views and initiate change, but they might even accidentally promote policies which harm those in the poorest countries instead of help them.
It is my belief that the single greatest thing an activist can do to help bring an end to extreme poverty is to become educated on the subject;
so to help educate the public and empower activists, I have created a website which will explain the issue in depth and answer the questions above.
Thus the purpose of this website is not only to raise awareness about this issue, but also to educate the public on the science behind development economics; the study exploring how to turn extremely poor countries into rich ones. In order to create change, activists must arm themselves not only with startling statistics, but also with a deeper understanding of which specific interventions will successfully help the poor and knowledge of why those interventions will work. By combining human compassion with a profound knowledge of development science, I believe that activists can be vastly more successful in pushing for the political reforms needed to help Earth's poorest citizens become wealthy. I encourage all poverty activists to read the rest of the pages in this website and empower themselves with the knowledge they need to help completely eradicate extreme poverty within our lifetime.
