Poverty is a major problem in our world today, where people cannot afford the basic necessities necessary for survival. Around 1.02 billion people go to bed hungry every night. 1 Since the world population is approximately 6.8 billion, this represents approximately 17.64% of the world's population. 2 As they try to earn money to survive, poor people are exposed to crowded living conditions, which puts them at greater risk of contagious and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. 2 The other deadly disease associated with poverty is AIDS. 3 The need to earn more money often translates into having more children, but due to lack of education on safe sex practices, sexually transmitted diseases are rampant in poverty-stricken areas . When parents contract HIV, HIV is passed to their newborns and the cycle continues, leading to a recursive cycle of death from AIDS. The reality is that poverty is a silent killer that is ignored by most, but by opening our eyes and taking a stand against poverty, we can live in a world without poverty. We all hear stories about poverty in our world through the media that share how we can make a difference. Yet we choose to do nothing. Perhaps we don't really understand the problem and its importance or we don't know what we can do about it. As individuals, we can do much to end global poverty, but we often don't know where to start to join the fight. Carrie Underwood says it best in her song "Change" when she says "What you gonna do when/you're watching TV/And a commercial comes on/Yeah, you know the kind/Flash up/pictures of a child in need / For a penny a day you can save a life / Call the / number, reach out / Or do ...... in the middle of a paper ...... call take us one step closer to living in a world free of poverty. The options available to end this battle are endless and there is something for everyone. Whether it's sponsoring a child, making a donation, organizing a fundraiser or volunteering with an organization that helps poverty-stricken communities, there's something for everyone tastes. So how did you help put an end to this sad chapter in our world's history once and for all? Works cited1 http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/20568/icode/2 http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Diseases_of_poverty4 http://www.metrolyrics.com/change-lyrics-carrie-underwood.html5 http://www.poverty.com/internationalaid.html6 http://orgs.tigweb.org/action-against-poverty-aapCorbett , Thomas J. “Poverty”. Microsoft® Encarta® 2006 [CD]. Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Corporation, 2005.