The World Bank defines extreme poverty as any individual living on less than $1.25 a day (adjusted for purchasing power parity). But that is only an economic understanding of the condition that afflicts over 1.4 billion people on the planet. In order to better understand what extreme poverty feels, smells, and sounds like:
Imagine the look on a mother’s face as she decides which of her starving children will not eat that day.
Imagine the hot sun, pouring sweat, blistered feet and aching back of an 8-year-old girl walking two-and-a-half hours each day to fetch water. She fills up her 5-gallon jug with water that might not even be clean, heaves it to her head, turns, and walks back home once again.
Imagine lying on the dirt floor of mud hut at night, dreaming of attending primary school, learning to read, or having a future other than being a 12-year old bride to a middle-aged man.
Imagine the sound of crying children, sick and dehydrated from diarrhea. They are so dehydrated that they cry without tears. It’s doubtful that they’ll survive, but the medical clinic is too far away to get help, and they are too weak to travel.
Imagine running your fingers over your son’s face as he lies gasping in bed from tuberculosis compounded by HIV/AIDS. You gave him the disease, but it wasn’t your fault. Your husband spread it to you, and now he has died. You feel weaker by the day, but you have no access to medicine and can’t get sick because who else will take care of your children?
The scenarios you have just read describe the lives of 1 out of every 6 people on the planet.
Extreme poverty is not necessary. We have the knowledge and resources to end it, but do we have the hunger?
Nuru is fighting to see an end to extreme poverty in our lifetimes. Thankfully we’re not in this fight alone. Thousands of humanitarian organizations, multi-lateral institutions, Fortune 500 companies and impassioned individuals are working alongside us to end extreme poverty. But it’s not happening fast enough.
We can end extreme poverty one community at a time. We’re starting first in Kuria, Kenya.
