Poverty - A barricade against prosperity, yet not without hope

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22,000 people die every day from extreme poverty or preventable diseases. I don't know about other people, but this as well as the following facts shock me. Poverty, a condition in which one's income is so low that one doesn't even have the means to support oneself with basic needs, is universal. Even extreme poverty, a condition identical to poverty, except for the fact that one has a feeling of powerlessness, is found worldwide. This means that there are indeed many people who cannot easily escape from poverty, or are in a poverty trap. However, the World Bank, an international bank, is trying to decrease the number of people in poverty traps by using its money to make loans to Third World Countries, usually meant for necessary reconstruction and development. This bank also cares about the voices of the poor themselves, and sought to universalize the data of their opinions by interviewing poor people in 73 countries. According to the article by Peter Singer, the World Bank defines a person in poverty as someone who earns $1.25 or less per day. The bad news is that number of people living under that poverty line is 1.4 billion. Yet still, there is hope for mankind today. Studies show that in 1981, there were 1.9 billion people living in extreme poverty. In 29 years, the people living under the World Bank's poverty line decreased by 0.5 billion people! These statistics could improve even more drastically if foundations that aid people worldwide such as the Mercy Corps, Red Cross and the United Nations would flourish from donations and volunteers. Even simply buying a bednet could save a life, as one of the most deadly diseases which causes 1.5 to 2.7 million deaths each year is Malaria. This topic of poverty effectively touches me as an individual because, living in Pakistan for 7 years, I have witnessed many beggars on the street and most of them have just pretended to have an injury just to get empathy from people with more wealth and therefore money. Yet I know that injured or not, these street side beggars hardly gain any money at all from their daily rounds. Thus, the idea of hope for a better future of these people in one big poverty trap is interesting and exciting for me.