Only half of African children will complete primary school, 1 in 6 children will die before their 5th birthday and 35,000 people die every day. Surely that is enough information for everyone that things have got out of hand.
There are three main problems which have led to poverty which is prevalent today. Trade is causing much misery for developing countries. More economically developed countries (MEDC) exploit the worlds’ poorer countries and are biased towards the richest. This needs to better for future generations. Our country is in a strong position to influence trade rules to give families a better chance at life; a chance to sell fairly and to more countries. Half the worlds’ population lives on less than $2 a day. If poor countries are banned from supporting farming and industry, then how can they have any proper go at life in general? USA and Europe can do this though.
Another of the three problems that contributes to third world countries is aid. Without the funding that is needed, a person dies every three seconds, 30000 innocent children die needlessly due to extreme poverty every day and a child dies every 15 seconds due to a water related disease. If the UK met the 0.7% target by 2008, an extra 1.5 million people could be lifted out of poverty each year. If medical aid is available, the 8 million lives could be saved each year. Young people who have completed primary school are less than half likely to contract HIV. All of this can happen, only if $50 billion worth of aid can be available to third world countries each year.
The final factor which assists to poverty is dept. Only 10% of previous dept has been cancelled and the dept crisis is far from over. For every £1 which is given to Africa in aid, £3 is siphoned off in dept repayments. Many countries still have to spend more on dept-repayments than meeting the need of their citizens. Each year, Africa faces demand fro over 10 million dollars in dept repayments. Because of this, the governments of countries in Africa cannot supply and provide the people with what they need. Rich countries of the world don’t particularly NEED this money back. The African need it far more than we do. Why can’t everyone be treated equally? If this was a crisis in our country, then we would be out of it and helped by now.
Many are relying on the help of others, as they do not have any of their own left. All the Africans need is a fair go at life, please don’t take it away from those who are still alive. I certainly know that if I could control the situation that life would automatically be made better for those living in a third world country. Do you know exactly how much faith these people have in us? We can’t let them down.
Yours sincerely,
Meghann Thorp
