Reality Check

1. Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
   At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
   ^Source1
2. More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.^Source2
3. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.^Source3
4. According to UNICEF, 25,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”^Source4
5. Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
   If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.^Source5
6. Based on enrolment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimisitic numbers.^Source6
7. 
   
   Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.^Source7
8. 
   
   Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.^Source8
9. Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.^Source9
   For more: Global Issues 
   
   
   What can we do?   It's easy to give a banana to the child on the street, but should I give bananas to all the children on the street?  Should I give money to every blind man I see around Accra? Can I buy malaria pills for every Ghanaian?  Where do we even begin?  And will my gift or action even make a difference?  What if I choose to give to one who is not a good steward of the gift? What if the gift is squandered? 
   Jesus said: "Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.  And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them." Luke 6:30-31
   He also said: "When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward." Matthew 6:2
   I believe that just as Christ offers His grace and love and salvation to all of humanity, we should give as we are able.  Christ offers salvation to all, and gives us the choice of stewardship of that gift.  Likewise, we should give love, time, food, service, and sometimes money, just as Christ gives grace to us, and it is up to the recipient to be a good steward.  Christ commands us to give.  
   "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like....Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."  James 1:22-24; 27