POVERTY

Developing countries as our own country Indonesia is facing many major classic problems, and one of the greatest is POVERTY.

Not to mention, debt and corruption worsen the situation.

Based on World Bank's research result on poverty rate reported in 2008 at least 80% humanity lives on less than $1 a day. This number is based on Purchasing Power Parity which taken generally from many countries.

According to UNICEF, 24.000 children die each day due to poverty.

Around 27-28% of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight.

Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or even sign their names.

The list is going on and on...

We surely can not turn a blind eye to those facts.

Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan said as he called for progress on human development to go hand in hand with advances in security and human rights.

In a message marking International Human Rights Day, whose theme is that fighting poverty should be a matter of obligation and not charity, Mr. Annan said that “if we are to be serious about human rights, we must demonstrate that we are serious about deprivation.”

Mr. Annan said the world's poorest are the people least capable of achieving or defending rights – such as to a decent standard of living or to food and essential health care – that others take for granted.

“We must all recognize that wherever families eke out an existence on less than a dollar a day, or children die for lack of basic yet life-saving care, the Declaration has, at best, a hollow ring,” he said.

Fighting poverty is not an individual fight, it is our duty that we should work hand in hand to reduce it.

As we may aware, poverty is in the mindset. If you can change the mindset of the people, to change the paradigm, to change how they act and see things, they will surely change their fate and get out of the poverty chain. Empowering people with skills and knowledge, no debt, no corruption even from the smallest scale of action, will be an excellent start to reduce poverty rate. It begins with our willingness to change and to help others.