The issues
Footprints broadly supports the Millennium Development Goals that aim to significantly reduce world poverty by the year 2015.
Water and sanitation
- Over 2.4 billion people lack access to proper sanitation facilities and 1 billion lack access to drinkable water.
The lack of clean water close to people's homes also affects people's time, livelihoods and quality of life. Many women and children in developing countries spend hours each day walking miles to collect water. This water is usually dirty and unsafe but they have no alternative. Carrying heavy water containers is an exhausting task, which takes up valuable time and energy. Learn more »
Health
- Over 11 million children under the age of five die each year from preventable diseases.
- Of the 14,000 women and girls who die each day from causes related to childbirth, 99 percent are in the developing world.
- More than 40 million people are currently living with HIV/AIDS.
- Malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds.
It's not hard to understand how ill-health affects people - a simple dose of the flu can keep us all away from work, family and friends. With access to decent health care in first world nations however, something like flu is usually considered not much more than an inconvenience. Learn more »
Poverty and hunger
- 1.2 billion people live on less that $1 per day.
- 800 million people go hungry every day.
On a large scale, entire rural populations that are poor and undernourished are prone to diseases including AIDS and Malaria, struggle to send their children to school, or to buy medicines and enough food. Starvation and disease eventually causes death. Learn more »
Education
- 133 million young people cannot read or write.
- The children of uneducated mothers are more than twice as likely to die or be malnourished as children of educated mothers.
A good education is one of the most basic rights of the child. Without one, a child is immediately disadvantaged and far less likely to achieve their true potential. Nor is it enough simply to send a child to school - although millions of children are not even given this. What, how and when they are taught is what lies at the heart of true education. Learn more »
Information on this page was researched and collated with the help of Oxfam Australia and the United Nations Website.