Take a look at poverty
examples of the real world

A Selgado documentary:
(22 minutes)








Do you think that you are a Christian? Then take a look at some of your brothers and sisters
Picture
life in Freetown,
Sierra Leone
(with Dutch subtitles
57 minutes)
Is extreme poverty decreasing? Are the millenium goals being met? See the video:
(6 minutes)

Convincing figures of a hurting world
Children
Compare the infant mortality rate in some countries with the rate in the U.S.:
(deaths/1,000 live births)
  • Somalia: 110.97
  • Chad: 100.36
  • Sudan: 86.98
  • Burkina Faso: 86.02
  • Laos: 79.61
  • United States: 6.30
    (source: CIA - The World Factbook - 200

Education
Literacy rates in some countries where are as low as 25%
  • Only 40% of men and 28% of women ages 15-24 in Burkina Faso know how to read or write
  • Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 47% of the world's out-of-school children; 54% are girls
  • There are an estimated 500,000 hearing impaired children in Bangladesh, but only 36 schools with a capacity for 1,750 students
  • Fewer than 50 percent of all Kenyan children attend school
  • Many families cannot afford mandatory school uniforms for their children without World Concern's help
    sources: CIA, UNESCO and World Concern

Hunger
  • More than one third of child deaths worldwide are attributed to undernutrition
  • Chronic malnutrition has stunted the growth of out 178 million children worldwide, with the highest rates in Africa and Asia
  • Stunted growth causes brain development to lag
  • About 20% of deaths of children under-five could be avoided with proper nutrition
  • Proper nutrition may help delay the progression of HIV/AIDS
  • Close to half of Haiti's population is affected by food insecurity
    Sources: World Health Organization, World Concern

Income
  • Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than $1.25 per day
  • 1.4 billion people (one in four) live in extreme poverty
  • Extreme poverty is most common in Sub-Saharan Africa, SE Asia and Central America, areas where we work
  • More than 5 million people live in Bangladeshi slums
  • 45% of people in Bangladesh live in poverty
  • 60% of people in Bolivia live in poverty
  • Money lenders on the streets of Bangladesh may charge 50% to 100% interest annually on microloans
    Sources: UNICEF, World Concern, CIA "The World Factbook"

Health
The pursuit of good health - a long journey
  • AIDS remains the #1 killer in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • 33 million people have AIDS worldwide
  • 23 million people with AIDS live in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Intestinal parasites infect roughly 40% of the world's children
  • Parasites consume essential nutrients and cause anemia, malnutrition, skin disorders and stunted growth
  • More than half a million women die every year of complications during pregnancy or childbirth; most of these deaths can be avoided with proper medical care
    Sources: UNAIDS, UNICEF, World Health Organization

Water
Most people cannot get enough clean water
  • Diarrhoeal disease alone is responsible for 1.8 million deaths annually(see article in Time below)
  • In sub-Saharan Africa, 42% of the population lacks improved water
  • In 2002, 1.1 billion people lacked access to improved water sources (about one out of six people)
  • Of those 1.1 billion people, nearly two thirds live in Asia
  • Droughts cause the most ill-health and death because they often trigger and exacerbate malnutrition and famine
  • Between 28 and 35 million people in Bangladesh consume drinking-water with elevated levels of arsenic
    Source: World Health Organization
The Causes of Poverty