Our World

Poverty issues in Africa

I thought that this article was very interested and sparked my interest due to the fact that we are discussing the economic issues associated with Africa in class right now. Sub Saharan Africa has one of the poorest regions in the world and deal very frequently with famine and disease. It is actually considered the poorest continent of the world and is known for its issues. The united nations says that Africa alone needs 2 billions dollars to help feed more than 25 million people in 2005. So far they have raised less than half and still have over a billion debt.

For the region of Sub Saharan Africa this issue affects people every single day. It internally affects them more than people think it does. It obviously affects the issue of famine and poor living conditions. A dramatic crisis could soon happen in Africa, as in Zimbabwe along up to 7 million people suffer from starvation. Many people have abandanned their homes in search for food or wildlife. One in three of Africa's 900 million people are lacking the adequate amount of food.

Poverty in Africa also affects the crazy spread of disease such as malaria, sleep sickness, and HIV/AIDS. Malaria, cause by mosquitoes and sleeping sickness, caused by tsests flies are both due to the poor living conditions and unhealthy lifestyles. HIV/AIDS affects millions of people every day there and is by far one of the largest causes of death.

In Africa more than half of the hospital beds are occupied by people with HIV related diseases and are becoming more and spend more than 4 times longer than other people in the hospital. This raises the needs, commands, prices, and time of the hospitals there. AIDS kills 25-35% of the population in Africa which is killing off the future employers. The relationship with AIDS and poverty is the pricey ways to cure and help AIDS. In the US we pay 10,000 to 15,000 dollars for treatments to this disease. No one can afford these treatments or even afford the information to get educated about the issue and how much it is affecting the region.

I personally think that the issue about Africa and it's poverty has become a large issue for that region and a large issue worldwide. We are a humane society and set up fundraisers and humanitarian aid to help this poor country out. Other countries are trying hard to help Africa out and so it affects us by the time and effort we put into assissting them.

I think that we know the problems but we don't know the full extent of what these problems go to. I think the G7 countries, the government of the seven most industrial countries which drive the economics of the world, could help out more. It is obviously a problem and will keep getting worse if we don't help out.

We can help out by giving subsidies and financial aid from our government. The US and other countries shouldn invest in the economy and business. We can teach them how to bring business and how to farm, also to put them as a part of a trading partner. With providing support it will help stregthen Africa as a whole.

posted by Anonymous @ 10/30/2006 08:42:00 PM