Issues+and+Background+Hum2+Group1

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Opening Paragraph: In 2000, 1.7 million children's lives were lost due to the failure of the world's governments to assist poverty-stricken countries and alleviating their suffering. Is this how we want the world to be for future generations? The eradication of poverty is by far the most important global issue. By getting rid of poverty, we can drastically improve global health, diminish the gap between poor and wealthy, give people a chance to live out their dreams, and solve all other poverty-induced problems. According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty (Shah), and one third of the children under five suffer from malnutrition (Sachs). More than one billion people don't have access to safe drinking water, and some families are so poor that they can't send their children to school. As these children can't afford to be educated, they can't get good jobs, and are unable to provide for their family, which makes them once again stuck in the cycle. We can completely eradicate poverty with 8 million dollars, which is less than 0.5% of the global income. The world is so uneven that the wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor (Shah). Unfortunately, not many people are willing to help. Less than one percent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000, and yet it didn't happen (Shah). By ending poverty, we can end all the other problems that come with it. If we give a little, we get a little, and if we give a lot, we get a lot. By helping out people, whether it be in micro financing or a donation to a country, poverty will be alleviated and the world will be safer, healthier, and a place where you can live out your dream.

What is poverty? Poverty is a vital issue today, and is affecting the world as a whole. 6 billion people live on Earth, and of this 6 billion, 3 billion, or half the population is poor. 30,000 children die each day due to poverty, and many of the causes for their deaths are very preventable. We can help their situations in so many ways. People living in moderate and extreme poverty live on less than 2 dollars a day, while in America and Europe, they pay the same amount to subsidize a cow. Another reason why countries are so poor is that due to very unfair trade rules today, these countries are denied 2 billion dollars a day. So many things can be done about this issue, yet something is still stopping us. My group found a wonderful organization called AmCham-Shanghai Sunrise, where we can help make a difference to these people. We will be sponsoring a library for 6,000RMB. By doing this, we hope to have an impact on not only one child, but a whole community.

How is poverty affecting the world today? Poverty is affecting the world in numerous bad ways. Poverty contributes to the spread of AIDS, and is causing huge amounts of people to die, which, of course, affects the world in a negative way.

What is being done: Our group found a variety of organizations that help poverty in many different ways, but we only found a few that we thought could really help poverty. First, we did research on an organization called “The Giving Tree”, which allows everyone to donate all sorts of unwanted gifts and toys to underprivelaged kids. I thought that this was a good idea because it’s nice to donate items, and not just money. This way, we could buy things especially for certain kids, so it would be just like sponsoring them. Another great organization was AmCham Shanghai Sunrise. My group likes this organization the best because it’s the most unique. Shanghai Sunrise allows you to sponsor many different things, whereas the other organizations would just let you sponsor one child. You can help pay for things as small as one child’s education, or things as big as a whole library. We think that it is also very important that children get good education, because without it, they would not have the opportunity to get good jobs, which puts them right back into the poverty cycle again. We thought that there were certainly many organizations that help poverty, but there weren’t enough. In the end, we decided to go for sponsoring a library for 6,000 RMB.

"The Giving Tree." __Community Center Shanghai__. 22 Jan. 2008 . Burke, Lori. "Shanghai Sunrise." __AmCham-Shanghai__. AmCham. 20 Jan. 2008 . Sachs, Jeffrey D. "The End of Poverty." __Time Magazine__ 6 Mar. 2005. 20 Jan. 2008 <[|http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1034738,00.html>.] Shah, Anup. "Causes of Poverty." __Global Issues__. 24 Nov. 2006. Global Issues. 20 Jan. 2008 <[|http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp>.]

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