9/09/2010

Let's Refocus

Now that the Quran burning has been called off in Florida, maybe we can refocus on real issues. Consider the following facts:

  • Approximately 9.2 million children under the age of 5 die each year, mostly from preventable diseases. That's approximately 25,000 children each day.
  • 2.5 billion people around the world do not have access to adequate sanitation and about 885 million people do not have access to clean water.
  • Every day, 4100 children die each day from severe diarrhea - as a result of poor sanitation and hygiene.
  • Approximately 600 million children live in extreme poverty.
  • Nearly 11,500 people die every day from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Nearly two-thirds of these people are living in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • 75 million children are out of school around the world, a figure equivalent to the entire primary school-aged population in Europe and North America. (from One Day's Wages - Statistics are from the World Bank and the ONE Campaign)
One child in every classroom in America is at risk of losing his/her home because their parents
are unable to pay their mortgage. – Based on information from the Mortgage Bankers Association
1 out of every 200 homes will be foreclosed upon. For a city like Washington, D.C., that
translates to 3,000 Washingtonians losing their homes to foreclosure each year. – Mortgage Bankers Association

27 million – Number of people in modern-day slavery across the world.
1 million – Number of children exploited by the global commercial sex trade, every year. (from the Polaris Project)

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, 1.35 million U.S. children are homeless on any given night.

Everyday about 115,000 lives are terminated from abortions (from Center for Bio-Ethical Reform)

• At least one out of every three women in the world
has been raped, beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise violently
abused in her lifetime. (U.N. Development Fund for Women)
• Worldwide, up to one in five women report experiencing
sexual abuse as children. (WHO)
• Eighty percent of trafficking victims (from International Justice Ministries)

More than 200 million Christians in over 60 nations face persecution each day, 60% of
these are children. (from the WEA as reported on Voice of the Martyrs)

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me...I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:35-36, 40)

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