Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit.
-Eli Khamarov, Lives of the Cognoscenti
Every year at least 6 million children die from malnutrition, or malnutrition related causes every year, but there are low cost alternatives that could curb the number of deaths. The correlation between poverty and malnutrition is obvious to many, yet with solutions in our hands, millions of children still suffer needlessly. Poverty is more than just hungry children, it is the economic instability of whole communities, entire nations, and a cycle that is too often left to continue generation after generation.
“Lack of nutrition not only carries enormous human costs, but high economic costs as well,” said Richard Skolnik, director of international programs for the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau.
(Poor diet factor in child deaths)
For less than $6 a year a child, or adult, could receive iron supplements and nutrition education, which could save, or at the very least prolong, their lives. So why is are these solutions not already being implemented world wide? Jeffery Sachs stated that:
“This is a story about ending poverty in our time. It is not a forecast. I am not predicting what will happen, only explaining what can happen. Currently, more than 8 million people around the world die each year because they are too poor to stay alive. Every morning our newspapers could report, “More than 20,000 people perished yesterday of extreme poverty.” How? The poor die in hospital wards that lack drugs, in villages that lack antimalarial bed nets, in houses that lack safe drinking water. They die namelessly, without public comment. Sadly, such stories rarely get written (The End of Poverty).”
In 2005 Jeffrey Sachs published his book, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Times, in which he illustrates how we can eradicate poverty in our time. In his book Sachs states we should; Commit to the task, Adopt a plan of action, Raise the voice of the poor, Redeem the U.S. role in the world, Rescue the IMF and the World Bank, Strengthen the U.N., Harness global science, Promote sustainable development, Make a personal commitment.
Most of us, in the west, live in nations that have failed our fellow humans, and an entire generations of children, as governments continue to fall short on promises to end hunger and poverty. The fight against poverty is actually declining, and has done so even more in the wake of September 11, as we focus more on ending terrorism, than the true root of global instability…poverty. The end of poverty is within our reach, and we must work as a collective international community to see that the solutions are put into action, and that poverty is stamped out. Of course just throwing money at the problem is not the solution, we must invest in sustainable solutions, and not just make ending poverty a commitment, but a true global priority in which we work as a collective international community to achive.
Links:
Make Poverty History
Heifer International
World Food Program
UN Millennium Development Goals
