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28, 000 children die each day from poverty-related causes¹. We have a chance to wipe out this and similar statistics, but why aren’t we taking action? I believe that we should be spending a lot more of our money on foreign aid, rather than wasting it away on a war that isn’t going anywhere. I am going to talk about the facts and the solutions of foreign aid for developing countries.
1.2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day¹. This is one of the biggest calls to action for me. One of the only ways to get rid of this number is, you guessed it; foreign aid. The United States spends less than .22% of its budget on “international relief”. Why aren’t we spending our money for people that need it most? Greed and self consciousness. We pledged to support 1.3% of our budget on aid. But of course, our promises were not kept. Again, I ask that live-saving question; why pay $2 trillion dollars on the “War on Terror”, as Bush calls it, when only $150 billion² could wipe out poverty for good. That may seem like a lot of money to most of us. But, compared to how much we spend on war, that’s a good price to pay.
The counter argument of this issue has to do with war and “over spending”. I’m not going to waste my time to explain this hypocrisy. Why take the time to explain to you what war is and how the US is obsessed with it. Why fritter away your and my time “denying” that we don’t care about the world. Everyone already knows how greedy our country is turning anyway. As a seventh grader, Katie, says “we’re wasting money on the war and the people in Africa need the money more than us.”
The obvious solution for this issue is to fund the foreign aid fund, which is what I’ve been trying to persuade you to take action for. Why misuse precious money on stupid things like war and violence? We could also raise our own money by hosting an event, building a house³ or even just doing easy (and fun) things like baking cookies. Anyone can make a difference by doing things you enjoy doing and sticking to what you believe in.
“You must become the change you want to see in the world”, as Mahatma Gandhi, the influential leader once said. I think this is the best quote I could close with because I believe we can start getting out act together. We can still make a difference, but we need to act soon.
It’s for the future . . .
¹ United Nations
² WorldChanging.com
³ Habitat for Humanity
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