Poor and Alone
Poverty in Africa continues to claim lives !

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA -- According to a recent United Nations’ report, “30,000 children die each day due to poverty. They die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.” On an average about 210,000 children are dying each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year. It is a tragedy beyond understanding or comprehension! And for the most part, the majority of these deaths will occur in Africa.

Africa includes some of the poorest countries in the world. In much of Africa south of the Sahara Desert, harsh environmental conditions make difficult living even more treacherous. Dry and barren land covers large expanses of this region. As the poor try to survive through farming and other subsistence practices, they exhaust the land, using up the soil nutrients needed to grow crops.

Political instability and wars have also contributed to the depth of Africa’s poverty. As a result of these wars as well as the famine and drought that have plagued the continent, the number of people living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa grew from 217 million in 1987 to more than 300 million in 1998.

“We have to be a little outraged that there are over billion people living in extreme poverty in the world,” a recent advisor to the United Nations recently stated. “The problem in Africa isn’t a lack of will. It isn’t a lack of desire to live. It’s the poverty trap!”

“Our team have witnessed it first-hand for more since we began “We have seen what poverty does to one generation after another. When the poverty cycle -- or trap -- is not broken, it will continue to claim lives. If a parent is not educated, then he or she cannot earn money to provide education for their children. And so the cycle continues. It is our sincere hope that our work to provide education-- as well as the basic necessities of life -- will help families break free from the poverty that is killing them.

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