The Haves and the Have-nots in the 21st Century

Since her mother left, 14 year old Leeda from Cambodia has been in charge of the household. Every day she cooks, cleans and takes care of her brothers. A phone number to contact her mother in case of emergency is carved on one of the house's wooden beams.

Leeda is now in the seventh grade at the Dey Thoy School with a scholarship from the OPTIONS Programme, which is run by World Education with support from UNICEF, the United States Department of Labor and The McKnight Foundation. Despite her family's acute poverty and her responsibilities as her brothers' caretaker, she dreams of attending university and becoming a health worker, however, no one really knows if her dreams will come true, for if she does not have enough money to fulfill her dream, she knows that she'll be spending the rest of her life taking care of her siblings, trying to scratch and get any dime she can get to survive.

In every country, there are thousands, if not millions of families who are suffering each day, children and elderly people living in the midst of poverty and neglect, somehow surviving on less than one dollar a day. Based on World Bank figures which are used for official global poverty statistics, the number of people living below the international poverty line of $1.25 per day fell from 1.82 billion to 1.37 billion between 1990 and 2005.

It has been estimated that the continent with the biggest percentage of people living below the international poverty line compared to its population is Africa with 91 to 121 million in sub Saharan Africa alone. It has been estimated that THE poorest country in the world is Zimbabwe where 80% of the population is unemployed, 1.8 Million Zimbabweans live with HIV and receive no treatment as the health system has collapsed, due to of course financial issues.

When it comes to Jordan, the poverty line, based on 2008 figures, was JD57 per person per month and JD3,876 per household (5.7 people). That is, in order for one to consume a certain number of calories and meet basic needs, the household has to have an income of JD3, 876 per year, or JD323 per month. Note that a family that is provided for by one working person who is making less than JD323 per month will be considered poor.

There are so many people in need around the world, so many who need our help, our support, and our love, and the way to achieve that is not by sitting here reading about this, sympathizing for a few minutes then you forget you ever read this, because that won't help, support of give love to those in need, luckily, there are several given ways as to how to help eliminate poverty, try them!

1. Spread awareness
2. Donate food, money, clothes...etc
3. Help those in need find proper, affordable shelters or jobs
4. Volunteer: When you are on holiday or if you have free time, volunteer at shelters and children's homes
5. Share with others how much giving and contributing helped you and motivate them to help out too, spread the love!

There is so much pain, suffering, hunger and poverty in our world, and we have to do something about it really soon before all our current choices narrow down to only one, we need to take action, we need to help.

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” - Dalai Lama

Name: Meera Maaytah, 8