MDGs: END POVERTY AND HUNGER

This past week we focused on the Millennium Development Goal aiming to reduce poverty and hunger worldwide. Goal One is important because it relates to each of the other goals directly -- ending poverty requires educating children, improving health, and protecting the environment so we can use its valuable resources. Reducing poverty, therefore, is necessary in achieving development. IN ORDER FOR COUNTRIES TO GROW ECONOMICALLY AND FOR PEOPLE TO ENJOY HIGHER STANDARDS OF LIVING, WE HAVE TO GET MORE PEOPLE HEALTHY, EDUCATED AND WORKING. When people work, they contribute to the wealth of their country and the entire world. In our discussion we explored what poverty is, how big the problem of poverty is, why it's important to combat poverty, and how we can help. To help you in doing your journal activities, we've summarized this week's lesson below.

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first we focused on DEFINING POVERTY:
We considered what we think of when we hear the words "poverty" and "hunger" ... Do you think of homeless people roaming the streets begging for money? Do you remember the commercials you see about children suffering worldwide? Put yourself in the shoes of a poor person, and try to think of specific struggles you may face.

How would you define poverty if you were a world leader trying to solve it? For these people, poverty is more complicated than how someone dresses or what they do or do not eat. Leaders had to agree on a definition of poverty before they could begin addressing it because without a standard definition, they would not know who to help ... or HOW MANY people need help. When determining what poverty is, they had to consider three things:

1. Poverty Line: The poverty line is the level of income below which a person cannot afford to buy basic necessities. It is the least amount of money a person would need to survive. This amount changes depending on where you live, and how many people are in your family.
2. Absolute Poverty: Living below the poverty line; not being able to buy basic necessities.
3. Relative Poverty: a level of income that may be above the poverty line, but is still much lower than average members of a society or group. If a man makes less than one thousand dollars a year, can afford to buy most of the things he needs, but lives in a country where the average person makes 100,000 dollars, he is considered "relatively" poor. While inequality in income is not necessarily a bad thing, if the poorest people in a country cannot afford basic needs and have little opportunity to improve their status, it could lead to conflict (violence) and instability (poor government control).

The first goal of the MDGs shows what poverty line the world leaders determined would identify those they would help. In calling for a reduction of those living on less that $1 a day, world leaders acknowledged that people making less than that amount are most in need of help.

Using the $1 a day poverty line, we can determine how many people in the world live in absolute poverty:

• Here, we see that 880 million people live on less than $1 a day (meaning they make less than $365 a year).
• If we increase the poverty line to just $2 a day (or $730 a year), we see that 2.6 billion people live below this amount.
• By raising the poverty line to just $2.50, we learn that half the world's population is considered poor at this level. More than 3 BILLION people live on less than $2 a day.

Poverty isn't just a dollar amount, however. To get a better idea of what poverty is, we focused on how poverty affects the lives of these billions of people.

Poverty affects people of all ages, genders and ethnicities. Women, children and Africans are, however, more likely to be poor. Furthermore, even though poverty exists everywhere, areas in South Asia, South America and sub-Saharan Africa suffer the most. People in these regions of the world constantly face threat of drought, spread of disease, and/or high numbers of preventable deaths.

Poverty affects all aspects of a person's life:

1. Their HEALTH is often at risk: poor children face high mortality rates and malnourishment; poor people in many regions face the threat of diseases they cannot afford to prevent.
   
2. Their chance of receiving sufficient and quality EDUCATION is usually small: more than a billion people in the world cannot read or write -- often people sacrifice education to help support their families as a child, or because they cannot afford the fees for schooling.
3. Poor people also have little ACCESS TO BASIC NEEDS: more than a billion people lack access to clean water; a third of the world's people have no sanitation system. This not only presents practical challenges to daily life (how would you cope with having to walk miles carrying all the water you would use for the day), but also leads to widespread diseases.
4. Poor people also lack POLITICAL POWER: they have little say in the laws that affect them, and little influence on whether or not governments will address their needs ... governments tend to listen only to those with money and power.

In these ways, poverty enslaves people -- it becomes impossible to escape the bonds of poverty. If people aren't given the opportunity to educate themselves, if they are too sick or malnourished to work, they will never lift themselves out of poverty. And, often, their children will suffer the same fate.

That's why we must do something. People and governments must act together to end poverty. World leaders, especially rich nations, recognize their duty to do something, but they will not act unless enough people demand that they do -- we have to hold them accountable. And without our help, billions of people will continue suffering needlessly. We have a stake in their suffering and in their success. If we let the problem continue, we lose potential workers and thinkers. If they are able to work, they will contribute to the world's wealth and we all benefit. Most importantly, we must act because we can. Even children can make change, and you have numerous advantages that allow you to speak freely and fight for those who have no voice.

We must make sure governments do everything they can, which includes:

• change unfair trade laws
• provide debt relief and better aid
• educate all children
• improve sanitation conditions and access to water
• and provide quality healthcare to poor people

We know that's a lot of information to try to grasp, so if you're having trouble, leave a comment and let us know what parts are unclear. You can also send us an e-mail at cpe.network@gmail.com.

The most important thing we want you to consider is how you can be a part of the solution to poverty. How can you make sure governments are doing everything they can? How can you get others to convince governments to fight poverty? Are there any organizations or groups in Atlanta that tackle poverty and hunger right here in our community? How can you help them?