I am a Christ-follower. I believe that people are on this earth for a purpose, that we were created for something unique, and that all human life has value. Because these are critical truths for me, I also have to look at the world in which I am a citizen and discover what my responsibility is for the state of the world’s children:

If we could reduce the whole human race to 10 children sitting around a table:

• 3 would have plates that are heaped so high that they will never possibly finish what is there.
• 2 will just about manage to live by scavenging what is thrown away from the three.
• 3 will be permanently hungry
• 2 will die, one of dysentery and one of pneumonia.

If that’s not tragic enough, it gets even worse:

• 28 Million children die from easy curable diseases each year
• 17 million children die from malnutrition and starvation each year
• 1/3 of the world population is malnourished
• 20% of the world has no access to safe water at all
• 40% have no sanitation
• 10 million children are involved in the sex industry
• 100 million children are on the streets
• 200 million child laborers
• 1.4 million children under the age of 15 are living with HIV

These statistics can be found on Abaana’s website. What deeply saddens me about these issues is that they are all solvable! What happens to children can change if others would have compassion. What I have to do, as someone who sees these kinds of truths up close, is to remember that I may not be able to change the world but I can make a significant difference in the life of one. If there are enough of us to do that, we may be able to see poverty eradicated in our lifetime. Jeff Sachs of Colombia University believes it can be done by 2025 – I strongly suggest you read his book The End of Poverty.

In the meantime – what’s one thing you can do, today? Say a prayer, make the decision you’ve been putting off to go to Africa or Russia, invest something of your personal finances for one orphan? It may mean the difference between life and death for a little boy or girl who is created in God’s image – just like you and me.