The Poverty Situation

About Poverty

About 25,000 people die every day of starvation or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. That is one person dying every three and a half seconds. Unfortunately, most often it is the childeren that die.

However, there is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that impoverished people are trapped in a severe lifestyle of poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish themselves. They become weaker and sick more often from being constantly malnourished. When increasingly fewer people are able to work, they become even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral leads to death and the children are left to fend for themselves as orphans.

Burundi's Poverty

Sadly, 70% of the people in Burundi live in poverty and are malnourished. When the civil war broke out in 1993 and then lasted for twelve years, it destroyed the minimal resources that they originally had. Now the country is left with very few natural resources and almost nobody has any basic needs such as food or clean water. The people of Burundi have to grow all of their own food as substance farmers and they receive little or no foreign aid. Many children do not go to school because educational degrees are not valued because there is a shortage of jobs that require degrees.

Because of a combination of years at war and limited resources, Burundi has become one of the world's poorest countries. The per capita income is only three hundred dollars and the literacy rates are very low (men: 67.3% women: 52.2%). Many people have never even heard of Burundi, so there is little foreign assistance. This tiny country is surrounded by other poor and impoverished countries such as Rwanda, and they offer no help. There is a lack of food, clean water, medicine, and other simple basic needs. The 12 year war ended in 2005 and Burundi is still recovering from the damage. About 200,000 people perished in the war, leaving many children orphaned and on the streets.  HIV and AIDS as well as other insignificant sicknesses have killed and orphaned many people as well due to lack of medical care. Most people here in the U.S. are focused on promoting peace and don’t pay attention to the poverty that is killing the country of Burundi.

Why Should We Care?

Not everyone has the basic needs to survive and since we have such good lives here, we should help those who don't live as well as we do. We should help the people of Burundi because they are poor and do not have the money or materials to have clean water, a good education, and access to health care.