89 million more reasons to get involved

We get the following question all the time:

Why do we need another organization?

We're sure that most folks that ask these questions ask with good intentions and while everyone should check their motivations and vision, we are thankful for the folks that went before us [like the orgs that you really really like...] that chose to move forward even when people asked them the very same question. Had they stopped, they wouldn't be around and while there are no perfect organizations, they are acting upon their convictions and the world is a better place because of it. Our only hope is that they're acting without ever forgetting the same goal of "working ourselves out of a job."  That's our hope for One Day's Wages.

You understand what we're saying, right?

But if you need more reasons why we should all get involved and why we feel convicted about One Day's Wages, we'll sadly share another 89 million reasons. The numbers are so staggering that sometimes, we just want to pretend that these statistics - reflecting and affecting human beings - do not exist.

But they do. They are real numbers. And they are real people.

Depending on who you speak to, approximately 1.4 billion people already live in the conditions of extreme global - defined by the World Bank as those who live on less than US$1.25/day. And in a report published last week by WB, they state that 89 million more people will be living in extreme poverty by the end of THIS YEAR!

While the global economy is showing tentative signs of recovery, 43 low-income developing countries are still suffering the consequences of the global recession, which highlights the need to increase support to the poorest countries dealing with economic volatility and crisis, the World Bank said.

In a paper prepared for the upcoming G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, the World Bank said that as a result of the crisis 89 million more people will be living in extreme poverty, on less than $1.25 a day, by the end of 2010. The global recession has also put at risk $11.6 billion of core spending in areas such as education, health, infrastructure and social protection in the most vulnerable countries. [full article here]

[photo: taken in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. Jan. 2009]