Possible Solutions to Extreme Poverty
Approximately 736 million people in the world live below the poverty line, earning $1.90 a day or less.1 Struggling just to survive, the men, women and children living in such extreme poverty often lack basic needs, such as clean water and sanitation. With destitute living conditions, they frequently also lack hope for anything better. Though the need is great, and the struggle intense, there are possible solutions to extreme poverty.
Many impoverished people, especially in developing countries, struggle with water scarcity.
They are among the 1.1 billion people worldwide who lack safe drinking water.2 Instead, they drink whatever water is available, even if they have to travel 30 minutes or more by foot to collect the water, and even if the water is contaminated.3 This water frequently leads to waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, diarrhea and dysentery. Lack of sanitation facilities, common among impoverished people in developing countries, also contributes to disease, which prevents adults from working and children from attending school.
Organizations such as GFA World are helping impoverished communities by addressing this lack. GFA World provides clean water through the installation of Jesus Wells and distribution of BioSand water filters.
More than 38 million people have been helped through these clean water initiatives. GFA World also provides sanitation facilities for families in need, giving them a safe place to go without spreading disease through open defecation. These initiatives help meet basic needs and promote health. Healthy individuals are better able to work, earn income and pursue better lives.
While having basic needs such as these met helps, it is often not enough for people in extreme poverty to break out of the cycle in which they are stuck. Perhaps more important than such temporary measures, impoverished people need empowerment to improve their own lives and pull themselves out of poverty.
Rather than focusing on temporary assistance, GFA missionaries invest in community development efforts that improve quality of life and empower individuals to build better futures for themselves.
GFA missionaries are part of the communities they serve and seek long term transformation that will enable individuals and families thrive.
One avenue through which GFA missionaries invest in families’ success is the giving of income-generating gifts. Gifts of livestock such as goats, chickens and cows quickly multiply and can help provide the family with nutrition as well as income. Gifts such as sewing machines, hand carts and fishing nets give men and women the tools they need to provide for their families. All such gifts empower these individuals to overcome the cycle of poverty.
GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program focuses on the next generation.
While alleviating the family’s financial burden by meeting the child’s basic needs, the program gives children the educational assistance and tools they need to have a solid foundation for their futures. They don’t have to be destined for the same destitution their parents have struggled against. They can have hope for a life free from extreme poverty.
These are just a few ways GFA World helps impoverished people in places such as Asia and Africa.
1 “Ending Poverty.” United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/ending-poverty. Accessed November 17, 2021.
2 “Water Supply & Sanitation.” World Water Council. https://www.worldwatercouncil.org/en/water-supply-sanitation. Accessed November 17, 2021.
3 “The United Nations World Water Development Report 2019: Leaving No One Behind.” United Nations. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367306/PDF/367306eng.pdf.multi. 2019. 2019.