25 Sep How Do We Really End World Poverty?
The developed world has struggled for many years on how we can accomplish the goal to end world poverty. For years we have known that more than half of the children in the world get little to no education. The challenge is much larger and more difficult for girls. Despite a lot of time and money spent by many well-meaning people, little has really changed.
The challenges in the third world are enormous. The reality is they need pretty much everything; education; safe water; sanitation; access to medical care; solutions to great food insecurity; solutions to the brutal treatment of girls and women; ability to fight corruption; quality transportation; technology; and on and on.
So, anyone who is helping them in any of these areas is helping them have a better life. And there are many people, foundations, corporations, service clubs, etc. doing great work in these areas all over the world.
However, I talk to people all the time who feel we are not really making much progress, despite all these efforts. Why is this?
At the end of the day, the only long-term, sustainable solution to poverty is education. We can give them safe water; clean sanitation; medical care; help with food insecurity; promote equality of girls and women; help them fight corruption; quality transportation; technology; etc. but without education, they will not escape poverty.
Education is the solution that solves all the other problems. Of course, I would not suggest we stop helping in all the other areas. I am suggesting though that we need to devote a lot more of our resources towards creating a world where every child gets a great education. Also, empowering girls is crucial to end world poverty.
An educated workforce is necessary for sustainability of good health, sanitation, food supply, etc. Without doctors, trained technicians, nurses, doctors, carpenters, plumbers, etc. none of the other solutions can be built, operated or kept in repair. Without a trained workforce, only a small portion of built or donated equipment or infrastructure is operational after two years.
We need to start by making sure every child starts primary school. We know that many children never even start primary, but no one seems to know how many. If we can get them into a pre-school first, that is even better. We then need to make sure they finish primary school and get to high school. When they have completed high school, we need to get them either to university or vocational school. For most people in the developed world they read this paragraph and think, “Why is this a big deal?”. To anyone who understands this issue around the world, they know it is a real big deal with a long list of difficult challenges.
Many people will say the reason we cannot do this is we just do not have enough money. We provide education for children in Kenya, for four years of boarding high school and cover all costs, for $3,500. Think of what a small amount of money this really is. We can get a high school education for a million students for $3.5 billion. In the scope of all the money spent in the world, this is really a small amount.
Of course, I must bring up the costs of not educating children. We can make the case that the root cause of all problems in the world is a lack of education. What does lack of education cost us? War – Genocide – Crimes against humanity – hunger – lack of healthcare – poor sanitation – unsafe water – and on and on.
I write this because we need to have this serious discussion. How can we get the world to take more of the money designated to help people in the third world, and use it to make sure children are getting educated? Please close your eyes for a moment and think about a world where every child gets a great education.
We can create a world where every child gets a great education. It starts with being determined we are going to make this happen. Send me an email to let me know your thoughts and ideas to end world poverty.
Brett H. Weiss
Founder and Director
www.weissscholarshipfoundation.org
Email: brett@weissscholarshipfoundation.org
Mobile: 1-630-248-5405
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