Poverty, at it’s very simplest, is a matter of “not having,” either in absolute terms or relative to others. There are many forms of poverty in our world – economic, relational, cultural, spiritual. It is not our purpose on this site to deal with all of them, or to say which kinds of poverty are more important; all are important.
At Givers by Design, we are focused on the Christian response to those who live in what is called “extreme poverty.” A simple definition of extreme poverty might be living on the edge of subsistence. To live on the edge of subsistence implies conditions so difficult that death (to no longer subsist) is a continual threat. A United Nations declaration at the World Summit on Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995) described extreme poverty as a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs. These basic human needs, or what is required in order to simply subsist, include safe drinking water, food, and basic medical care. Some of the most basic measures of the impact of extreme poverty would include child mortality and life expectancy.
Among the UN Millennium Development Goals (2000) is the halving of extreme poverty by the year 2015. While progress has been made, much of the improvement has been centered in China and India, whose economies have been developing at a rapid pace. It is not uncommon in Sub-Saharan Africa for entire families to “subsist” on less than 30 cents per day; hard to imagine, isn’t it? In economic terms, the World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than $1.25 per day – presently, 1.4 billion people.
For Christians, the question posed by Richard Stearns (President, World Vision US) on the cover of his award-winning book “The Hole in Our Gospel” is this: What does God expect of us?
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