Facts on World Hunger and Poverty

thanks to Anthony (one of my tutor students) for emailing me the WHY (World Hunger Year) article because "Grace teacher likes this kind of stuff".

• Approximately 5 billion people live in the developing world. This world is made up of about 125 low and middle-income countries in which people generally have a lower standard of living with access to fewer goods and services than people in high-income countries.
• Economically, the constant securing of food consumes valuable time and energy of poor people, allowing less time for work and earning income.
• 852 million people across the world are hungry, up from 842 million a year ago.
• The combined wealth of the world’s richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion.
• Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity.
• Counting near-poor families (below twice the poverty line), nearly 8 million low- income children lived in households that experienced hunger or severely crowded conditions, or that had their phone or utilities shut off.
• Effective debt relief to the 20 poorest countries would cost $5.5 billion- equivalent to the cost of building EuroDisney.
• Providing universal access to basic social services and transfers to alleviate income poverty would cost $80 billion, less than the net worth of the seven richest men in the world.

"They will not hunger or thirst,
Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down;
For He who has compassion on them will lead them
And will guide them to springs of water."
- Isaiah 49:10

May your will be done.