Every day in the developing world 20,000 people die because they are too poor to survive. More than 1 billion people live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 a day and unable to meet the basic needs of survival. They are chronically hungry, have no safe drinking water or sanitation, are afflicted with disease, cannot afford education, and lack access to adequate health care. Many impoverished people are not suffering because they are lazy or their governments are corrupt, but because they are trapped in a vicious cycle of deprivation. The main issues affecting the poorest of the poor include lack of food, lack of clean water and sanitation, lack of education, lack of job opportunities, and lack of government structure and support.

Lack of food
Around the world, one person in seven goes to bed hungry each night. More than 850 million people worldwide are persistently hungry. Chronic hunger is not the result of a failure to work, but largely of drought-prone climates, lack of nutrient soil and fertilizer, or inadequate resources. For example, according to Jeffrey Sachs, U.N. Millennium Project director, only two of a group of 200 farmers at a meeting in Kenya were able to use fertilizer because the others simply could not afford it. The result was that even in a year with good rains, crops often failed, perpetuating the cycle of hunger. The vast majority of the poor and hungry are not looking for a handout to fill their bellies for an evening but a method to sustain their lives long-term.

Lack of clean water and sanitation
Over 1 billion people in the world do not have access to clean water or sanitation, two basic necessities of life. Two million people die every year from water-related diseases including malaria, diarrhea, cholera, hepatitis A, polio, e-coli, typhoid, salmonella food poisoning, guinea worm, and intestinal parasites like hookworm and tapeworm. Diarrhea claims the lives of nearly 6,000 children a day. Africa is burdened like nowhere else with malaria simply because the conditions are perfect for breeding a particular species of mosquito that prefers to bite humans rather than cattle. A simple solution is the use of bed nets, but most people cannot afford them. More than 1 million African children, possibly as many as 3 million, die of malaria each year. Their deaths are preventable.

Lack of education
Studies show that education is a key tool in improving social status, preventing disease, increasing income, and sustaining an adequate quality of life. Yet around the world, more than 1 billion people are illiterate, and 115 million children do not go to grade school because their parents cannot afford fees, books, or uniforms for their children. Besides basic schooling and skills training, the poor are often uneducated about how to access help and how to prevent disease, thereby accelerating the maladies of hunger, sickness, and death.

Lack of job opportunities
In order for people to be self-sufficient, they need either a stable method to produce food or a trade that will earn money that can buy food and basic life necessities. Often in developing countries people have neither option and must continue living from day to day unable to plan or prepare for the future. This dearth of labor options is part of a poverty cycle in which lack of education contributes to lack of opportunity to work, which limits income.

Lack of government structure and support
In developing countries the government is often incapable of truly caring for its citizens. Governments are critical to establishing basic infrastructure and services like health care, roads, and education. However, when the citizens are too impoverished to be taxed, when foreign debt is already a burden, or when resources for social spending are restricted, governments are increasingly forced to rely on foreign aid and international non-governmental organizations to provide social services such as education and basic health. is severely limited. This issue is problematic in day-to-day living, but is particularly poignant during times of crisis and natural disaster. Victims are either left helpless or are forced to rely solely on outside aid. 

The Empowering Nations Solution
Empowering Nations addresses each of these issues. Whether it’s teaching English and math skills, educating would-be entrepreneurs about micro-credit loan opportunities, training villagers on water-filtering and disease-prevention methods, or rebuilding after a devastating tsunami, Empowering Nations is dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and their families long-term.