Hope for the End of Extreme Poverty

    The article “The End of Extreme Poverty” by Nicholas Kristof is about how the conditions of the world’s poorest people, those who live off less than $1.25, are improving. Things are looking a lot better for the world. This gives me a lot of hope for the world.

    The people who are trapped in extreme poverty live extremely hard lives. For many years a vast majority of people in extreme poverty usually lived short, illiterate lives. They faced diseases, disability, and the loss of children. In the article, the author writes “In Cambodia, I met a woman whose daughter had just died of malaria and who was left caring for seven children and grandchildren. She showed me her one anti-malaria mosquito net and told me how every evening she agonizes over which children to squeeze under it- and which ones to leave out and expose to malaria mosquitos.” The lives of many people living in poverty are unimaginable, and inhumane.

    However, the lives of these people are starting to look better as time goes on. The rate of people living in extreme poverty has been reduced from 1 in 2 in 1980 to 1 in 5 today. Less and less people are being born into extreme poverty. There still are a lot of people who are in extreme poverty today. There might never be a world without poverty, however extreme poverty may become almost nonexistent. These changes have been made possible by global investments in vaccines, medicines, schooling, sanitation, and technology. Rajiv Shah, the head of U.S. Agency for International Development, says that extreme poverty should be eliminated by 2030.

    Also, the health of people living in extreme poverty is improving. Many diseases are being eliminated or have already been eradicated. Polio and measles have been eliminated because of vaccinations. Guinea worm, a parasitic disease that causes intense pain, is about to be eliminated because of improvements in sanitation medicine. There are many other diseases that are being killed off. The overall health of humans has improved greatly, and continues to get better all the time.

    There is so much change happening today. This change is for the better. Countless numbers of lives are being saved and improved due to outside help. The world is getting closer and closer to becoming a better, safer place for people. The future of the our planet is looking optimistic.