Facts About Poverty

After our interview with Vapor Ministries, my heart continued to ache about people in poverty dying from preventable causes and to a Christ-less eternity. Naturally, it made me research more. I thought I’d share with you some of the terrifying facts that I found, and more reason to do what we can to help combat the issues that children and families in poverty face.

Water

• More than 750 million people lack adequate access to clean drinking water. Diarrhea caused by inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene kills an estimated 842,000 people every year globally, or approximately 2,300 people per day. Source: 11 Facts About Global Poverty
• Globally, at least 1.8 billion people use a drinking-water source contaminated with feces. Source: Water Facts

Food/Hunger

• Almost 1 in every 15 children in developing countries dies before the age of 5, most of them from hunger-related causes due to poverty. Source: 11 Facts About World Hunger
• Every 10 seconds, a child dies from hunger-related diseases. Source: Facts About Hunger and Poverty

Medical/Preventable Causes

• 50 percent of pregnant women in developing countries lack proper maternal care, resulting in approximately 300,000 maternal deaths annually from childbirth. Source: Facts About Hunger and Poverty
• Preventable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia take the lives of 2 million children a year who are too poor to afford proper treatment. Source: 11 Facts About Global Poverty

Organizations Helping With Poverty Related Issues

These are just a small few of the facts that help to describe the prevalence of poverty in the world and the issues that go along with it. Nonprofits like Vapor Ministries, Crisis Aid International, Smile Network and Lighting the Path Enterprises are helping to combat these issues with their efforts. Learn more about them on our nonprofit page, and you can even register to support them through RaiseUp!