Poverty: A Crucial Deprivation Of Basic Human Needs

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Pages: 3

Introduction:

Poverty is a sensitive and rather controversial topic defined as the “condition where people's basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are not being met.”.(1) Poverty directly affects more than 3 billion people all over the world, 1 billion of which are children. (2), Every year, over 2 million newborn babies die during birth or within the first 24 hours of their lives, (3) and an additional 2.9 million within the first 4 weeks of their lives. This accounts for approximately 40% of child deaths worldwide. (3)
There are two forms of poverty; absolute and relative. Absolute poverty, also referred to as extreme poverty is the condition in which there is a crucial deprivation of basic human needs

Personal Perspective:

Having
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(6) That means that out of my monthly spendings on coffee (about CHF 40), only CHF 6 is earned by the coffee farmer. Put into perspective, the “global revenue from coffee sales is about $55 billion, of which only $7 billion goes to the coffee-producing nations.” (7). This income is hardly adequate to sustain vital needs and a healthy lifestyle, so I am thoughtlessly perpetuating …show more content…
Investments in infrastructure and education occur predominantly in the urban areas and most families in rural areas cannot afford to pay school fees. There is also a severe lack of teachers willing to teach for free. It was not until 2003 that the government instituted a free education (12), which resulted in almost 85% of children attending school (13). However, in many districts, 4/10 students will be absent on a given school day, and there on average is a ratio of 52:1 students to teachers. This will contribute to a much slower learning process, leaving children to grow up virtually illiterate and in search of work. As jobs within the country are scarce, those who are educated well and get the chance to attend university often leave Kenya to work abroad, and rarely return, so the issue remains unchanged.