studentshelpingorganization

Friday 20 July 2012

Poor People in India are Fighting Poverty

ndia has over one billion people and approximately four hundred million of these live on less than one dollar a day. Around five hundred million live on less than two dollars a day. Unbelievably, eighty percent of the population of India that are living in poverty. Nearly half of all the children in India are undernourished, much more than in Sub-Saharan Africa. The lack of health care in India
There are some relief programs that are supplying free samples and other stuff for the poor in India, such as food and toys. Some are trying to teach the poor people more about computers so they can become more informed of what is going on around the world. Multinationals and entrepreneurs are making poor people in India their target for a hub of the computer innovation. Computer literacy has become one of the more effective tools in combating poverty, opening up windows of opportunity for many who would otherwise not be aware of those options. This is particularly important in poor India.
Other programs offer opportunities to sponsor a child, volunteer, help a special needs a child or give a child the gift of education. Education is one of the most important ways to get rid of poverty. No amount of money or help will allow people to live securely and independently if they lack basic literacy skills. By educating those who are mired in poverty, India is not only giving them access to a better life but improving the entire country. A prosperous people inevitably produce a financially healthy nation.
Another way you can help the poor in India would be to sponsor a child. Sponsorship is offered by both religious and secular organizations and has proven an excellent way of supporting and educating a child whose parents can afford neither. These programs usually require a small monthly donation that is used to give a child basic necessities such as shoes, food, medical care and school materials. They often pool money from more than one sponsor for an individual child. In turn, the sponsor will get a letter from the child at least once a year and receive photographs and updates on his or her progress. The difference sponsorship makes is significant and often leads the entire family out of poverty.
There are many other ways, of course, to help wipe out poverty. Volunteer work at a school or orphanage is free to the giver and priceless to those that they help. Simply reading to elementary school children once a week can make a tremendous difference in their lives. Helping to repair a school is another way of fighting poverty. Children that learn about the world around them often become involved in helping others as they grow, disrupting the vicious cycle that keeps many Indian citizens poor.
Poverty is difficult to overcome, especially if it crosses generation after generation. By working together and making both small and large improvements, the people of India can be free of this misery and break thecycle of poverty causes one million women and children to die each year and at least eighty million of the people go to bed hungry every night.

Please help those Poor Indian People with fighting their Poverty.

Cheap Solar Power for Poor People in India

Another inspiring story about solarpower benefitting the people who need it most: people living in emerging countries, in areas without grid connection and where often dirty kerosene is the only option.

The UK Guardian newspaper has run a story about the arrival of solar panels at a small village in Sullia in Southern India. Each panel cost $125 and can power two light bulbs and a socket. They were sold by the Solar Electric Light Company.

Help Poor People by Cutting Trade Barriers

In 2011, the U.S. government spent more than $22 billion in non-military foreign aidwhile collecting $6.8 billion in taxes onimports from the world’s poorest countries. Ironically, the government spent $185 million in “trade and investment” aid while collecting 36 times that amount from tariffs on products from poor countries.

Does it make any sense for the government to send billions of dollars in aid to poor countries while maintaining high tariff walls that block their ability to do business with Americans?

A better option would be to eliminate tariffs on imports from developing countries. The government could offset the $6.8 billion revenue loss by cutting foreign aid by the same amount.

The value of such an approach is easily testable. The United States could pick a handful of countries that receive foreign aid, likeVietnamorBangladesh, and eliminate all trade barriers and foreign aid to those countries. (The average U.S. tariff on products from those countries in 2011 was 9 percent forVietnamand 15 percent forBangladesh, and each country received well over $100 million in aid.)

Then, four or five years later, we could see how these countries compare with others who received aid but faced trade barriers.

How cash keeps poor people poor

Now here is something to think about! Time Magazine asks…Want to help the poor? Start by taking money out of their hands. More specifically, cash — coins and paper bills are the silent enemy of the poor, with costs often out of proportion with their day-to-day convenience…

“Tens of millions of people in the U.S. and billions of people worldwide — often have no option but cash, and pay dearly because of it. In a recent piece for Foreign Policy, Vishnu Sridharan of the New America Foundation writes that cash-based economies “harm the poor by heightening the risks they face when carrying money and fueling government corruption and inefficiency.” Imagine literally having your life savings under your mattress or folded into a coffee can, vulnerable to fire, thieves, drunken relatives or nagging neighbors. Imagine having to ride the bus for hours to settle a bill, or traveling for days to deliver funds to a relative. Your already fragile finances can also get hammered by outrageous fees charged by check-cashing services or astronomical interest rates levied by payday lenders.

Psychologists will tell you that we are more careful with our money when operating in cash because forking over those funds is a more salient experience than swiping a debit or credit card. But for the poor, especially in the developing world, it’s the opposite: cash gets spent. That makes it harder to buttress against financial shock and save enough to reach solid financial footing. In some parts of the world, people actually pay local strongmen to safeguard their money because having cash on hand is so precarious. Think about that: not even Wall Street bankers charge you to stash your money in a savings account (not yet, anyway).

Millions of people on the margins often tumble back into poverty because of sudden setbacks — major illness or natural disaster, for instance — but just as often they are small-scale financial disturbances like a sprained ankle, a leaky roof or a broken-down moped, which prevents you from commuting to work. Even if you’re managing to get by, a cash-only economic existence makes it difficult to save for long-term investments such as education, job training or farm equipment to break the cycle of poverty.

So what’s the solution? You probably have one in your pocket. By 2014, about 90% of all adults in the world will have a mobile phone. Technology companies have already shown that you don’t need the latest, flashiest model to send and receive money as easily as a text message and that you can remotely — and securely — access a bank account from the cheapest sort of handheld. Mobile technology will enable the poor to keep their money in the same form that you keep most of your money: digital. Not tomorrow, but soon enough, passing someone a bunch of banknotes or a clinking handful of coins will seem as dated as using a pay phone.

Digital money and mobile technology alone won’t end poverty, obviously. But as Rodger Voorhies, director of financial services for the poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes, innovations in these areas “hold the promise to increase transparency, improve financial access and help low income people get out of poverty and stay out of poverty.” If we can turn cell phones into the wallet and bank branch of tomorrow, we may end up doing more to combat poverty than cash donations ever could.