Disappointment and heartache will be looming over the United States if the Trump administration follows through with its plan to cut the federal funding for foreign aid. If you did not know this was happening, you need to get informed quickly.
What’s at stake is that poverty programs such as USAIDS will lose funding — funding which goes towards helping suffering people with food assistance, medical treatments, and many more programs that save lives. Yes, billions of lives. Those lives matter and need to be heard, that is why the Borgen Project is paving the way for those underdogs.
The Borgen Project focuses on addressing global poverty while promoting hope to those with none. The national campaign promotes innovations in poverty reduction and builds awareness of successes occurring.
Americans need to understand that only 1 percent of the federal budget goes to helping the world’s needy. About $30 billion is being spent on foreign aid, while a whopping $663 billion is spent on military spending. If those numbers didn’t scare you, maybe this will: the United States ranks lowest of all donor countries in the world. The U.S. should prevent 25,000 children from dying each day, because the U.S. can prevent 25,000 children from dying each day. With funding and public attention these children can be saved.
With all of the conflict happening in the White House it’s time to shift our attention to those who need our help. There is nothing complicated about improving living conditions for people suffering in abject poverty. Global poverty has been dramatically reduced in recent years and there are many success stories of conditions being improved for families, villages and entire countries.
It is crucial that we play an active role in encouraging our elected officials to make poverty a focus of U.S foreign policy. The steps are simple just: get informed, get ready, and call!
Kolby Burger lives in Killingworth.