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Downsizing world poverty – The incredible work of The Borgen Project

The Borgen Project

Around the world, millions and millions of people still find themselves living in abject poverty.

There are 736 million people living in extreme poverty around the world.

Shockingly, more than half of these people live in just five countries.

Three of the countries – Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethopia, are in Africa.

The other two – India and Bangladesh – are in Asia.

There are still developing parts of the world where people are paid just $1.90 a day.

A billion people still live each and every day with no electricity and hundreds of millions more with unreliable or expensive power.

With poverty, comes hunger

Figures released in 2018 showed 882 million people are hungry around the world.

Even in rich countries like the UK and the US, we are now hearing horror stories about children not being able to take their lunch to school, or their parents giving up meals.

But around the world more than two billion people do not have access to safe, nutritious food.

To make matters worse, there are 785 million people who either don’t have access to clean water or have to travel for at least 30 minutes to get it.

How could world hunger be solved?

It is estimated it would $265 billion to completely end world hunger.

While that seems a colossal amount of money, consider this:

The US defence budget is $668 billion
The annual year payment on US debt is $393.5 billion
The US government pays Lockheed Martin $34 billion to make the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program.

What does living in poverty actually mean?

The poorest 20 percent of the world’s children are twice as likely to die before their fifth birthday.

2.5 million babies born into extreme poverty die within a month.

264 million children do not go to school

19.4 million children are not protected from diseases by routine immunization.

What is being done?

That’s the bad news, the good news is there is a huge amount being done to try to reduce global poverty.

One charity doing incredible work is the Borgen Project.

Based in Tacoma, Washington, the charity was formed in 2003 by President Clint Borgen.

He came up with the idea having worked in refugee camps during the horrific conflict in Kosovo in 1999.

Following his graduation from Washington State University, Borgen took a job living on a fishing boat in Alaska.

It was from here he put his paychecks towards his vision, and the Borgen Project was born.

What does the Borgen Project do?

The charity has four key aims:

Meeting US leaders to secure support for poverty-reducing legislation.
Mobilizing people around the world to make eradicating poverty a political priority.
Teaching basic advocacy skills to people to allow them to communicate with their government.
Building awareness of global issues and big innovations in poverty reduction through online and community presence.

How does it do this?

The charity understands that if it’s on the US government’s agenda, the world follows.

This is why it puts so much effort into utilizing the US’s global power to improve living conditions for poor people around the world.

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What are the success stories?

The work of the Borgen Project has contributed to:

Global poverty dropping below 10 percent for the first time in 2015 and falling by half since 2000.
The proportion of people living in extreme poverty in East Asia and the Pacific took a nosedive from 60.2 percent in 1990 to just 3.5 percent in 2013.
AIDS related deaths in Africa falling by 43 percent since 2003, meaning the disease is no longer the leading cause of death in the continent.
From 1999-2012, primary school enrollment in sub-Saharan Africa rose by 75 percent to 144 million children.

Partnership with WhatJobs?

WhatJobs is proud to announce it is now working in partnership with the Borgen Project to help advertise its job roles in the US and UK.

Jeremy Roberts, WhatJobs Head of Sales Operations, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have partnered with a charity doing such amazing work. The Borgen Project is an incredible organisation and we’re thrilled to have them on board.”

More information on the Borgen Project can be found here.

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