Poverty affects 80% of people in the world. This means that over three million people live on less than $2.50 a day. Today the question arises of what we can do as a country and as individuals to help. Poverty is an important issue to discuss and learn more about for many reasons. More than 48 million Americans live in poverty, and 15.9 million of them are children. More than one in seven people currently live in poverty across the United States. A full-time, minimum-wage working parent earns $14,500 a year, and the official poverty line for a family of two children and one parent is $17,568 a year. 20 million children receive free or reduced-price lunch every school day, and only half of them eat breakfast on those days. Only 10% of these children have access to food during the summer. 14.5% of families can't even afford to put food on the table. Over 8,200 people worldwide are infected with HIV/AIDS and cannot afford treatment. More than 2.6 billion people in 40% of the world lack basic sanitation, and more than one billion people have unsafe drinking water sources. For this reason, five million people, mostly children, die every year from waterborne diseases. Most poor people face many terrible things. 21,000 people die every day from hunger-related causes. Many people fall ill due to lack of drinking water and when they are ill they cannot go to work and cannot even afford the medicines needed to recover. 28% of children in developing countries are stunted or underweight. 72 million children around the world do not go to school at all. For this reason, almost a billion people cannot read a book or even sign. In most areas a family of four needs... middle of paper......facts.html>.Compassion International. International Compassion. and February 19, 2014 .Do Something.org. Do Something.org. and February 19, 2014. Millenium Project. Millennium Project. 19 February 2014. National Poverty Center. National Center for Poverty. February 19, 2014 .Poverty.com. Poverty.com. January 2007. February 19, 2014 .Shah, Anup. Global problems. 07 January 2013. 19 February 2014. The Hunger Project. The Hunger Project. 2011. February 19 2014 .