We can stop extreme poverty in our generation--yet every three seconds a child dies because they are too poor to survive. The tragedy is that with the spare coins our pockets, the poorest children could live and even thrive. 

Today we are seeing a extensive movement to fight the worldwide emergency. Websites like http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca and http://www.one.org/ are home to Canadian and U.S. campaigns to make poverty history.

To change world poverty we need to first understand the problem.

 “The End of Poverty” by Jeffrey Sachs – a renowned economist – presents the complexities of development with compelling clarity.  A Time magazine excerpt can be read at http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/endofpoverty/documents/time031405.pdf

Sachs breaks development into four major economic categories:  extreme poverty, moderate poverty, middle income and affluent. 

“Extreme poverty” is defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1 a day.  Households in this category cannot meet basic needs for survival; they are chronically hungry, unable to get health care, safe drinking water and sanitation, or education for their children.  Often the extreme poor don’t even have a roof over their heads or basic articles of clothing like shoes.  Extreme poverty – only found in “developing” countries - is "the poverty that kills”.  Today over one billion live in extreme poverty. 

At the other end of the spectrum are the one billion considered “affluent”.  The affluent are defined as living on more than $6,000 a year (but as we know, there are enormous disparities within this category).

Between these two extremes exist the majority of the world’s population.  The moderate poor, of which there are around 1.5 billion, live on  $1 to $3 a day – they are meeting basic needs, but just barely. The middle-income earners, numbered at 3.5 billion, sustain themselves on no more than $16 a day.

The moderate poor, Sachs explains, have grabbed hold the first rung of the economic development ladder. Through improved education and over time the moderate poor can eventually pull themselves up that ladder toward the security of middle income.  In contrast, the one-sixth of humanity in extreme poverty – plagued by AIDS, drought, isolation and civil wars - cannot grab the first rung of economic development. They are trapped in a vicious cycle of deprivation and death.

A few centuries ago, nearly everyone was poor, with the exception of a very small minority of rulers and large landowners.  Vast divides in wealth and poverty between nations did not exist; life was equally as difficult in much of Europe as it was in India or China.  The Industrial Revolution and a rise in agricultural productivity released an explosive period of growth.  Population exploded, but the world's average per-capita income rose even faster, increasing around nine-fold between 1820 and 2000.  Today’s rich countries distanced themselves from the rest of the world with an almost 25-fold increase in wealth. 

We can end world poverty in this generation precisely because there are today as many affluent in the world as there are extreme poor.  The gap between extreme poverty and moderate poverty can be closed with the transfer of just one to two dollars a day from the richest to the poorest.   Once boosted from the vicious cycle of extreme poverty into the relative mobility of moderate poverty, the world’s one billion poorest could, over time, pull themselves up the ladder of economic development.  One to two dollars a day represents the loose coins in the pockets of the world affluent.

This website was set up to challenge people to learn the truth about poverty, and the small steps that could make a world of difference.  Follow the links on this site to learn out more about extreme poverty, and how you can help make it history. 

CTW Enterprises was established to both help Canadians through great health products like Natural Calm, but also to use the profits to help end extreme world poverty. We do this through an UN affiliate called Hope For The Nations (www.hopeforthenations.com). A volunteer-based organization, HFTN is able to deliver 98% of donations to directly benefit the extreme poor.

Please help us in our goal to make extreme poverty history

CTW Enterprises Inc.

www.naturalcalm.ca