Poverty: A Silent Killer

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Poverty is a major issue in our world today where people cannot afford the basic necessities required to survive. Approximately 1.02 billion people go to bed hungry each night. 1 With the world’s population being approximately 6.8 billion this is approximately 17.64% of the world's population. 2 While trying to earn money to survive, people in poverty are exposed to crowded living conditions which result in an increased exposure to contagious and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. 2 The other killer disease associated with poverty is AIDS. 3 The need to earn more money often results in having more kids but with a lack of education about safe sex practices, sexually transmitted diseases run rampant in poverty stricken areas. When the parents contract HIV, HIV is passed to their newborns and the cycle continues resulting in a recursive cycle of death by AIDS. The reality is poverty is a silent killer that is ignored by most but by opening our eyes and taking a stand against poverty we can live in a poverty free world.

We all hear stories about poverty in our world through the media that share how we can make a difference. Yet, we choose not to do anything. Perhaps we don’t truly understand the issue and how important it is or we are unaware of what we are capable of doing to remedy the issue. As an individual there is so much that we can do to abolish poverty from our world but often we don’t know where to start in joining the battle. Carrie Underwood says it best in her song “Change” when she says “What'cha gonna do when/you're watching T.V. /And an ad comes on /Yeah you know the kind /Flashing up/pictures of a child in need /For a dime a day you can save a life /Do you call the/number reach out a hand/Or do ...

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...ring us one step closer to living in a world free of poverty. The available options to end this battle are endless, and there is something for everyone. Whether it be sponsoring a child, making a donation, running a fundraiser or volunteering with an organization that aids poverty stricken communities there is something for everyone. So how have you helped bring this sad chapter in the history of our world to an end once and for all?

Works Cited
1 http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/20568/icode/

2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diseases_of_poverty

4 http://www.metrolyrics.com/change-lyrics-carrie-underwood.html

5 http://www.poverty.com/internationalaid.html

6 http://orgs.tigweb.org/action-against-poverty-aap

Corbett, Thomas J. "Poverty." Microsoft® Encarta® 2006 [CD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005.

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