In the world today, poverty and hunger are the biggest issues. However, they mostly touch children. According to Voices of Youth of UNICEF, everyday, 28,000 children die of poverty. That’s a child dying every 3 seconds! We live in a world that consists of more than 6 billion people. If we all stood up to this, we would still be able to give those children lives. But, we are surrounded by a problem: not everyone is informed about this, and not everyone knows what they can do to save people’s lives.

What are the causes of Poverty?

Firstly, we must understand that poverty is the root to hunger. Even with distribution of food, we could not completely erase poverty. It is mostly associated with political issues. Hunger is the result of poverty. The political issues step in when the country has poor economics, and also, inefficient agriculture. People are hungry not because of lack of food. People are hungry because of lack of money to buy food. “Indeed, globally the richest 20 per cent of humanity controls around 85 per cent of all wealth, whilst the poorest 20 per cent control only 1.5 per cent.” said Ross Copeland in the Politics of Hunger.

People must wait for decisions made by their politicians. However, sometimes these decisions can hurt others. To prove this statement, we should consider looking at the USA. The US’s shocking opposition to “Right of Food” comes odd along with other countries. The opposition to this right has been an abuse of primary rights of people. “First, the U.S. wanted all references to “food as a human right”(*) to be deleted, and second, the U.S. wanted strong language saying that genetically modified (GM) crops are a key way to end hunger.” (Rosset, Peter in US Behavior at World Food Summit: “Reprehensible.”) We can argue on this decision for many days. But, we must understand the point of it all: if people in poor economical countries are not given the opportunity for industrialization, and produce their own food, there is no way in the world we can prevent poverty from growing like cancer. Food donation can be an answer to some. But, logically speaking, this should not be a good option either. Those donations can only benefit wealthy individuals and their own interests

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published this graphic in 2000. It measures poverty using some indicators like: the illiterate adults, malnourished children, people lacking safe water etc.

Many countries are facing the problem of not being able to satisfy the basic needs of the citizens (food, safe water, education and health services). But in most of the cases, even if all these are provided, the people are too poor to afford them. Poverty became a “state of being” in many regions around the world (especially in African countries) and the battle against it seems like a vicious circle: by offering substantial aid to these people, poverty is not diminished …on the contrary, its rate increases more and more. Why? Because this is only a local process, the main problem also concerns economical as well as political aspects. Corruption, unfair trade, genre discrimination in the employment area, wars… all these are sustaining poverty, even when the NGO’s are providing food, health services etc. Lack of education is also an important factor: if 10-11 year old children must abandon school so that they can support their family, as adults, they won’t be able to attend a better job. Here are some of the most important issues that must be solved:

• Corruption (unequal trade agreements, authorities who use public money for personal purposes etc.)
• Illiteracy (all children must have free access to education, those who come from poor families must be supported so that they don’t abandon school etc.)
• Equality between men and women (statistics shown that women work more then men but are paid less for the same amount of work)
• Health services available for everyone (This is an important aspect in the process of “curing” poverty. Imagine a man who has a family to support and cannot work anymore because he’s sick, and the health services are too expensive for him. His family will also have to suffer.)
• Shelters for homeless people (In some countries, for example, the authorities usually decide to demolish useless buildings and the spaces become parking lots…instead of using the houses as shelters for homeless people-not to luxurious, just beds and some toilets so that they won’t have to sleep on the streets.)

Let’s inform people about the consequences of poverty, and most importantly, that this problem ca n be prevented by a proper education and constant support. We must understand that what we consider as some of our basic needs (mobile phones, cars, dinners at the restaurant, fancy clothes…) remains for others, still a dream… We must stand up for every human’s right to have a decent life. How can we enjoy our dinner, when out there, people are dying of hunger? How can we rest, when thousands of people are sleeping on the streets? How can we remain silent, when so many children are doomed to such a miserable life?

We want to give this message to the people around the world: By doing nothing we are just letting poverty increase day by day. We can’t keep complaining about the government and policy. We can fight against poverty. We have our hands, our power of will and our commitment to do anything we propose.

Our message is clear: the people are the ones who have to fight against poverty. That’s why we’re launching a raising awareness campaign in order to encourage people to get involved in our cause. Our group, in a different project (with the objective of eliminating social exclusion) will create a website and a forum, to involve as many young people as possible in this fight against injustice. Here we can organize projects and activities to help poor people. We’re also spreading our message in our towns.

On the other hand, we need to raise awareness amongst poor people by making them understand that they can get out of poverty in an honest way. Organized with a group of people we can go where poor people live or talk to the ones begging on the street to encourage them and give them confidence to fight against their situation and live in the conditions they deserve.

We’re going to help launch different projects and activities:

• Support children who come from poor families so they don’t abandon school.
• Claim to ministers of education, Children should also learn their rights as children in school. All the same, they should be taught at a young age what bad habits not to get into (drugs and alcohol which they are more prone to when living in poverty) as well as the basics of morality and good conduct.
• Last but not least, all adults should get involved in this project too: they must set an example everyday. They must promote honest work and teach their kids that working is not a shame. The easy way of earning money is not always the good one. These values must be transmitted from a generation to another.

Let’s make a difference! We are all a big family…and what is family for if not to help each other!

Note: (*) "The right to food is written into the constitutions of over 20 countries, and about 145 countries have ratified the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which explicitly requires signatory states to legislate for the right to adequate nutrition."