Cameron and Pohlman 1

Serein Cameron and Allison Pohlman

Ms. Agar
English II College Prep
12 December 2016

Poverty
When poverty hits, will you be there to help, or stand there and watch? To be extremely poor
and to not even be able to meet the necessities needed to live your everyday life. The people
have to live in this condition and it is not easy obviously and doesnt get easier for them which
we all know. They struggle daily to get what they need to survive, they die just trying to live on
the littlest of things. Living their everyday lives for them is far different from what we have. As
they struggle for food we will throw away what we dont want. When there clothes are torn,
stained, and barely even wearable anymore they still wear them as for us we just throw the
clothing item out. For these people they hold on the the little bit of things they have in order to
survive daily but we are throwing away things without second thought of this. In Africa, poverty
is a problem because people cant stay healthy, get the necessities they need, and are stuck in
terrible environment; if people dont make an effort to change this global situation then things
will get worse as time goes on for them.
Poverty is not just people not having enough money its more than that. It has many causes
and is a big issue in this world. We see and hear it all around, yet everyday we dont do anything
about it. Absolute poverty refers to a level of subsistence at which certain minimum standards
cannot be met (Obadina). All the things people who are in poverty cant afford anything, and

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are not able to get the materials and necessities they need to live there everyday normal life.
Poverty levels are higher everyday and they arent going to change if the standards dont start
changing first. Most people in Africa can barely live there lives because illness and even death
effect it. These areas have the highest percentage of people living below the poverty line and
the lowest access to basic services in the country(Africa: Process and, 47). As we read this
quote, it tells us that the people of Africa are all almost struggling everyday in absolute poverty
because of their economy. This matters because there are people struggling and them also
bringing stuck in a bad economy isnt helping either. For every 1,000 live births, 184 children
are likely to die before their fifth birthday (Poverty & Healthcare). This means that most of the
children that are born in Mali, Africa will die before the time that they turn 5 years old because
of the lack of necessities they have in order to live. They dont have enough necessary items to
survive and they dont have enough money for what they need in order to pay for these necessary
items. There isnt that much citizens and children in Mali because of the poor economy system.
There is no way to help the economy when there is no kids to get jobs in the future when they
grow up. This is a big matter because there are young children out there in the world that are not
going to be able to get the care they need, live a full healthy life, and not being able to survive on
the little bit they have. Mali will stay in poverty for the fact that children arent growing up to
help and boost Mali and make it a stronger and healthier place.
Money and the economy can be tricky to keep up with in any county. But Africa is the
hardest, knowing that Africa cant even afford technology. Nearly half of all people in region
live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $1 per day (Africa: Process and, 13). This means
that the people not just in Mali but in half of the region of Africa is struggling with this same

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problem just like the people of Mali are because they do not have a good economy. This is a big
problem because people do not only have to support themselves but families, which affects their
lifestyle overall. In sub-Saharan Africa, 589 million people live without electricity. As a result,
a staggering 80 percent of the population relies on biomass products such as wood, charcoal and
dung in order to cook (10 Poverty in). Considering that they dont have much money they arent
able to get certain things as in electricity and other necessities that people usually need. Its hard
to think about living without most of the things we have in the United States, like clean water
and wood/charcoal to cook warm healthy food. It would be a big change if we had to live like
this. No one wants that type of life, so why should they?
Are health is very important. The more money we tend to have, the more help we get and
the better care we get as well. The people of Mali, Africa arent able to get the healthcare we
have here because they have such a bad economy. Considering Mali is in such bad poverty they
arent able to have much hospitals or healthcare centers around and even for the ones that are
around they still dont get the best medical attention and care that they need, This matters
because Mali has poor healthcare and there is barely any health care for the poor or people who
are in poverty. As of 2009, there were only 729 physicians registered in Mali, which is less than
one doctor for every 10,000 people (Poverty & Healthcare). This shows that most people dont
have a lot of doctors in Mali causing bad health care, because of the lack of equipment and
doctors in Mali because of poverty. This matters because if someone gets sick in Mali they dont
have a doctor to go to because of the poverty, which causes higher death rates to occur. In
Mali, despite a certain political normalization, the armed conflict that has been under way for
almost two years makes access to health care difficult for people living in the north. The ICRC is

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helping them by maintaining its support for certain health facilities ("Mali: Access to). This
means that even if they look away the certain political normalization and the armed conflict that
has been going on for almost 2 years now its still hard for them to access health care since its
difficult for the northern people. This matters because Mali has a bad healthcare system and they
dont have a lot of buildings and people to help the sick.
It is hard to think many of these people are living this hard lifestyle, but there are some
ways people can help. WFP expects to assist around one million people this year in Mali. A
little over half are families affected by the conflict, while the rest are people in the southern part
of the country receiving nutritional support for their families while they work on
community-building projects (8 Things To). The WFP (the World Food Programme) wants to
try and help most to all the people living in Mali, Africa and try to help them as much as
possible. Transporting money, food, clean water, etc. People donate to the WFP with food, and
volunteers. They are bringing foods that will be helpful and the best for these people and doing
all they can. This shows that by March they ended up providing food to over 125,000 people in
the northern part of Mali and 150,000 people who went to the other parts of the country. So with
all this help Africa is hopefully soon to be growing with better lifestyles and a better economy.

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Works Cited

"8 Things To Know About Hunger In Mali." The World Food Programme. The World Food
Programme, 15 May 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.
"10 Poverty in Africa Facts - The Borgen Project." The Borgen Project. N.p., 2016. Web. 01
Dec. 2016.
"Mali: Access to Health Care Remains Challenging in the North." INTERNATIONAL
COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS. INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE
RED CROSS, 28 Nov. 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.
Obadina, Tunde. Poverty and Economic Issues. Philadelphia: Mason Crest,2007. Web.
"Poverty & Healthcare." Our Africa. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.