Poverty is one of the most humiliating and degrading experiences of human existence. The World Development Report of 2000/2001 (Attacking Poverty) revealed that Poverty is hunger, lack of shelter, is being sick and not able to see a doctor. Poverty is also not being able to go to school and not knowing how to read, not having a job, is fear of the future, living one day at a time. Losing a child to illness due to unsafe drinking water, powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom are all poverty situations. Poverty knows no discrimination. It has far reaching global effects.
The World Development Report further confirmed that poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and it has been differentiated into several categories. Poverty is a call to action from the Poor and the Wealthy alike. There are many dimensions of poverty that has to be defined, measured and studied and even lived. The report stressed that poverty line(s) in a particular country must be measured on the basis of norms for the society.
The World Development Report emphasized that, of the World’s 6 billion people, 2.8 billion live on less than $2 a day and 1.2 billion on less than $1 a day. These people are starving or dying from extreme poverty. About 1.3 billion people are living in absolute poverty (When people do not have enough food to survive). Each day 30,000 people die of hunger around the world. Capability poverty has also risen to 1.6 billion people. This classification of poverty is calculated by the number of children born underweight, proportion of births not attended to by trained medical personnel, and women who are illiterate. Eight out of every 100 infants do not live to see their Fifth birthday. Nine of every 100 boys and 14 of every 100 girls who reach school age do not attend school. Approximately half the world’s population lives in substandard housing without an adequate supply of safe drinking water. More than half are illiterate. About 60% of the world’s poor are women and children (UNDP/WDR-2000/2001).
Poverty Relief Organization believes that there is an urgent need to promote opportunity, facilitate empowerment, and enhance security for the poor. There is also a desperate need to provide assistance for the poor in the form of knowledge, skill training, healthcare, food, clothing, housing, and counseling. Most importantly, our goal is to help provide people with the means to help themselves
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