ending poverty made simple

Our tagline for Global Fast is ‘ending poverty made simple.’ What do we mean by that audacious and seemingly absurd claim?

Ok, so here’s the truth: Ending poverty is not simple. It’s a huge challenge. There are a lot of obstacles, risks, and uncertainties involved.

But the progress and the trends are in our favor. During the last 30 years, extreme poverty has been cut in half – from 40% to 20% of all people. Can you believe that? Amazing!

This is a shocking revelation to most people: Things are actually getting better! As a human race, we are making huge progress towards the end of poverty, such that it’s a true, real, legitimate possibility for our generation.

To continue this trend of ending extreme poverty, there are critical elements that are out of our direct control – such as economic policy in Zimbabwe, or civil war in Liberia.

But there are critical opportunities that are within our control – such as giving clean water in Peru, preventing human trafficking in India, providing sustainable income in Haiti, or giving relief to orphans in Uganda.

These are the most urgent and most basic things we CAN do. Any one of us can provide these essential basics that take a family out of the danger zone of absolute poverty, and into the opportunity zone of relative poverty – where they are providing for basic needs, able to work to support themselves, and have hope for the future.

Yes, our tagline is “ending poverty made simple.” Why? Because Global Fast is about a specific focus on what we CAN do today, not about what we CAN’T do. It’s about addressing those immediate things that make a huge difference for families living in extreme poverty.

The most fierce oppression that causes extreme poverty are the unjust laws, policies, and economics imposed by national governments on their people. In addition, the global policies of the US and Europe keep many would-be farmers in extreme poverty rather than providing for their families.

In both cases, these unjust policies keep villages, cities, and nations from producing the food, goods and services to support their needs.

And yet, in the midst of these issues, our choices and our charitable giving can overcome some effects of this political and economic injustice for the families and individuals who can be served with the most basic human needs to overcome poverty – water, freedom, opportunity and relief.

This is the primary mission of Global Fast: finding and directing funds to the immediate and sustainable solutions to overcome extreme poverty.

Extreme Poverty Defined.

Any definition falls flat in the face of the human reality that is extreme poverty. When children die of easily preventable diseases because of unsanitary water. When parents cannot feed their children, they sell them into slavery rather than watching them die. When families and children live, eat and sleep in the trash dumps of the third world – smoky, smelly, and with vultures flying overhead. When helpless orphans die for lack of basic care or human affection.

While the UN benchmark has been $1 or $1.25 per day, and this is helpful, it’s really about those most basic needs that allows human life to flourish and prosper.

The need is broad, but it’s truly situation-specific: In some places, getting out of extreme poverty might mean getting a family to $3 per day, with vaccinations and clean water. In other places, it might mean getting fruit trees, chickens, or tools to provide food or income. In some cases, it may mean sending an orphan to school so that she will have opportunity to eat, learn, and get a job later on.

Ending Poverty Defined.

When we talk about ending poverty, it doesn’t mean that we can track every last human being on the face of the planet and show that they’re making at least $5 per day. That’s impossible. But it does mean that mass poverty – one billion people without clean water – is marginalized. Rather than 27 million slaves around the world -- human trafficking will be marginalized. Perhaps it means that the vast majority of humans have reached some ‘basic needs’ target where water, food and other essentials are attainable.

Considering that 200 years ago, more than 90% of the world lived in what we would call extreme poverty today, we are on the right track to take the next steps towards marginalizing – and really ending – extreme poverty in our world.