Blog Action Day – Poverty, what can we do?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Poverty (also called penury) is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens. According to Mollie Orshansky who developed the poverty measurements used by the U.S. government, “to be poor is to be deprived of those goods and services and pleasures which others around us take for granted.”[1] Ongoing debates over causes, effects and best ways to measure poverty, directly influence the design and implementation of poverty-reduction programs and are therefore relevant to the fields of public administration and international development.
How does poverty make you feel?
When poverty is the topic I think of Robin Hood. Rob from the rich and give to the poor. This is how I feel about poverty. I want to use my technical knowledge and be a criminal for a day. Maybe today is that day (most likely not – I don’t want to go to jail). I do want to help though, but how?
The problem is always the same, how can one person make a difference? How can I make a difference? There are many answers to these questions, and many things that one person can do to help.
What does it cost?
Now the bigger question, can I afford to help? Most of us are not rich, we are not “the Elite”. If I was one of the elite I would like to think that I wouldn’t be a selfish asshole and bank my millions/billions. I would give most of it away, properly through donations.
Check out Poverty.com. Poverty.com has come up with a practical approach to world poverty and saving human lives. It is very simple actually, this is from their web page;
International Aid ― A Solution
Quick Summary: Almost all of the deaths from hunger and disease that you see on this site can be stopped. The cost to do this is about $195 billion a year, according to the United Nations. Twenty-two developed countries below have pledged to work towards each giving 0.7% (a little less than 1%) of their national income in international aid, which would raise the $195 billion. Some countries are slow to meet their pledge.
Is it no surprise that the United States has pledged the least amount of money and are not schedule at all to fulfill this pledge? Of course not, we can not wait for our government to help anyone, we must do it ourselves.
It’s time to act
First things first, go to Poverty.com and print out a letter to send to the government. I know I said we can’t wait for them, but with enough letters maybe we can make a difference.
Next, go to places like EndPoverty.org and donate some money. Let’s do some math here;
- Poverty.com says that $195 billion a year is needed to help alleviate poverty.
- There are 22 countries involved in the “Solution”. So, $195 billion divided by 22 is roughly $9 billion dollars needed by Americans.
- There are close to 300 million people in the US. $9 billion dollars divided by 300 million people is roughly $30 per American a year.
Like I said before, I am by no means rich. Unti this past year, I was paycheck to paycheck. But I can afford $30 dollars a year. Stop being so lazy, it only takes a couple minutes to donate. Really, $30 is one night of going out to dinner a year. Do you need that one night?
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Hi Jim – $30 a year isn’t much is it? I’m sure folk would rather give that to help people than to bail out the failing banks. Sure – these countries have many other problems too – but giving them clean water and food would give them the strength to help themselves.
@Cath – So true!