The World Poverty Runs Rampant

We live in a country where all children go to school to gain an education and 25% of them will go onto receive some type of college degree. Compare this to low-income countries, in which children are 16 times as likely to die prior to their fifth birthday (Nickitas, Middaugh & Aries, 2016). Beyond the lens of our smartphones, Facebook friends and Nike sneakers is a world full of desperate people wishing to have enough food to eat for today. Many parts of the world lack sanitation, safe housing, sparse medical care and no medication. The global health issue are everyone’s problems not only for the sake of altruism but, with the increase in global travel for routine business and pleasure, dangerous pathogen are no longer confine by boarders. The Ebola outbreak four years ago, proved the necessity of a global solution to global health issues. The collaborative practice of several world health agencies and economically developed countries along with the use of volunteers, statistical updates, the latest literature and practices kept this outbreak mostly contained to its region of origin and the death toll to approximately 11,000 people (mainly in West Africa) (WHO,

In the critically acclaimed video Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset (Rosling, 2009) Dr. Hans Rosling provides insights into how old mindsets with regard to the 3rd world versus 1rst world need to be re-evaluated and considered from the standpoint of what really differentiates the two. He also provides insights of how the new mindset is being driven by a series of stipulations that countries are increasingly relying on to lift the health of their entire populations (Rosling, 2009). He also provides insights into how the prodigious saving of 3rd world nations helped to finance the bail-out of the American financial crisis, and how these nations are also carrying the majority of economic burden today for developing economies (Rosling, 2009). His examples clearly illustrate how critical it is for countries to invest heavily in education, healthcare including vaccinations, and infrastructure to support the safe delivery of food, water and ensure the hygiene of a population (Rosling, 2009).

If a health clinic providing basic services to the world’s most vulnerable people is withheld the large amount of foreign assistance that currently comes from the United States government, all diseases will flourish, including epidemics such as Zika and Ebola (Barry-Jester, 2016). We contribute to more unstable political environments (Crimm, 2007, p.615) and more refugees that we increasingly refuse to help when we take away aid that would countries meet the needs of their citizens.

staggering? Poverty occurs when a person’s need for food, clothing and shelter are not being

Poverty is an issue that has affected society since civilization was first created. Even with a globalized economy and economic opportunity prevalent nearly everywhere, there is still a vast majority of people who live in financial strain. According to recent information obtained by the World Bank, “10.7% of the world’s population live on less than US $1.90 a day”(World Bank 2013). In the United States considered the wealthiest nation on Earth, the poverty rate is 12.7% which is 40.6 million people(US Census Bureau 2016). Though some people are in poverty because of their own choices, poverty is a result of structural institutional practices in place.

What was usually a disease contained in regions of sub-Saharan Africa became a global worry. Although the outbreak started in Guinea, it quickly spread to two neighboring countries. From these three countries, cases were then transmitted to the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom. No vaccine was available to stop the spread of Ebola. This deadly disease went from being a problem in only a small region of the world to being seen in three noncontiguous countries, which could have sowed the seeds of a pandemic had the cases not been contained. As a global community, we gain from our interactions with all citizens, but we must also be aware that we can also suffer from diseases that we think of as only affecting the “others.” If we do not help those “others,” we may become part of

What are some issues that threaten the immediate stability and balance of the world? War? Nukes? Global Warming? Economic fluctuations? The answer is none of the above. All of these are admissible issues, but they don’t come near to the immediate impact and effects that accompany world poverty. An estimated three billion people live on less than $2.50 a day, yet there hasn’t been any drastic actions taken to counteract this predicament in a sustaining manner (Shah). However, writers such as Peter Singer and Garrett Hardin are doing a stupendous job bringing this topic into the spotlight. Both “Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor,” and “The Singer Solution To World Poverty,” offer insight to this serious issue. Both authors

The health of many women in Algeria which is part of Sub-Saharan Africa in 1990 were impacted by the poor health care system because they lived in poverty. Poverty caused these women to lack essential needs to live a quality life. They lacked or could not afford resources such as supplies, health care professionals, and facilities for healthcare, clean water, and waste disposal. This ultimately affected the health of women and their children. For instance, lack of clean water and waste disposal facilities can cause health abnormalities such as cholera or typhoid fever which can cause devastating deaths. This is a healthcare problem because of the lack of funding. The lack of funding prevents antibiotics from being used to prevent death, and prevents African’s from being vaccinated against typhoid fever. Another example of how poverty affects woman’s health is unintended pregnancy, which is because they are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior. It's part of the health crisis because it includes a poor health system, and a lack of education about proper nutrition and behaviors during pregnancy. Complications in these pregnancies due to poor nutrition and not visiting the doctor regularly includes increased infant mortality. Infant mortality in the slums of Nairobe is 91.3% while it is 75.9% in urban areas where there is a better developed healthcare system. The inferiority of poor Africans in

Due to the already lack of “funding and trained teachers are scare in most countries,” the abandonment of children in schools in affected countries will only help to contribute to the already high illiteracy rate, “estimated at about 70 percent population the population across the continent” (Duiker 302). With approximately 25% of children in this region currently not attending school, this percentage can only be expected to increase due to the normalcy of children staying home instead of attending school as well as residual fear of another possible outbreak shared in communities (Smith 82). Consequently, the percentage of children actively working in affected countries will continue to climb from the initial percentage of 28% as many families are turning to their children for financial support in the household

Global health is not a topic we often speak of. In fact, it is mostly forgotten or ignored. But as with any event of international stature, it is important for us to understand and acknowledge. Global health has many facets, and I encourage each of you to find a topic that inspires you. Whether those inspirations be small donations or large movements towards change, find something and let it move you. We overlook the headlines in the news talking about mass genocides or rising HIV epidemics. Why? Because numbers mean nothing to us. When choosing a topic, nothing is more important than remembering that those numbers you are reading about are brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, people. Humanizing these sufferings leads to a connection and empathy.

If you were asked to donate some of your own items or money to help fight poverty, would you do it? A substantial amount of the world’s population suffers from some sort of poverty, whether it be monetary poverty, or food poverty. Poverty has become such a prevalent issue throughout history, that it isn’t put into consideration as much as it should be. Poverty is a serious world problem, and truly needs to be stopped. With the help of citizens of the world, and different groups, and charities, the percentage of poverty stricken people around the world could be greatly shrunk.

Poverty is a massive issue today, it surrounds all of life’s experiences, and it impacts on the future for people everywhere, and on health everywhere in society. Poverty is not just related to unemployment or

Unfortunately, it was estimated that roughly 1.2 billion people in 1993 lived in extreme or absolute poverty, that which Robert McNamara regards “‘a condition of life so characterized by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable standard of human dignity’” (Singer 219, 220). These estimates can be projected at nearly 2 billion today. A large majority of the people living in absolute poverty resides in underdeveloped countries. Among the nearly 4.4 billion people in these countries, “3/5 lives in societies lacking basic sanitation; 1/3 go without safe drinking water; 1/4 lack adequate housing; 1/5 are undernourished, and 1.3 billion live on less than $1 a day” (Speth 1).

Every city has poverty. Travel around the world, I bet it wouldn’t be difficult to find a city that doesn 't have an impoverished community. Poverty is a global issue, but most importantly it’s a local issue to me in the city that I live in. Among the 10 largest cities in America, Chicago has the third highest poverty rate with 40-60% of our residents living under the poverty level. People who live in poverty are given less opportunities, resources and tools than people who live in the middle or upper class. Poverty is not a pleasant subject, however, poverty is real. In the daily lives of the poor, poverty becomes a network of disadvantages. The end result is that there is a lack of access to education, employment, health care, affordable housing, proper sanitation and good nutrition among many generations of the poor (End Poverty). Of the issues associated with poverty, the lack of access to an education stands out to me the most. In Chicago, education is greatly valued and is vital for all development and growth achievements in people. Education is the process in which people gain knowledge, help form and shape attitudes and opinions, and allow people to gain a set of skills that they can further use in areas outside of a school environment. However, education systems in Chicago are taking a huge deficit due to the effects of poverty. The effects of poverty are already big factors toward the concern about Chicago, and why it is portrayed as negatively as it is, but those

One of the biggest recent social problems in our society today is poverty. Most Americans are aware of this problem, primarily through subjective reality. Poverty is often broken into two groups: absolute poverty and relative poverty. “Absolute poverty refers to a lack of basic necessities such as food, shelter, and income. Relative poverty refers to a situation in which some people fail to achieve the average income or lifestyle enjoyed by the rest of society.” (Leon-Guerrero, 2014, p 39)