Let’s Take a Look at the World’s Poorest Country
The more I have looked into the topic of poverty the more I realize how much I take for granted in my life. The fact I am able to even type out this blog on a laptop and post it on the internet is something I am starting to realize is a blessing. As someone who has lived in the United States my entire life I really did not understand the amount of people around the world that had it so much worse than I do. I decided to use this next blog post to talk about the most impoverished country on Earth which is the Democratic Republic of Congo.
I found an article online that was written by Kimberly Keysa from “The Borgan Project” that dives into the facts about poverty in Congo. Keysa (2018) states in her article, “The DRC has a population of approximately 77 million people out of which 80 percent live in extreme poverty. Internationally, the DRC is ranked medium in terms of human development. Indicators of human development measure a population’s well-being, i.e. its life expectancy, infant/maternal mortality, child mortality, malnutrition and mortality associated with diseases such as malaria.”. The statistics that are within that quote are astonishing to me because out of the 77 million people who are living in the DRC, over 61 million of them are surviving on less than $1.90 per day.
The worst part about the poverty rates in Congo is the fact that some people are living in some pretty good conditions while the other 80% of the population has to live in extremely poor conditions. Keysa (2018) states in the article, “The well-being of a population is disproportionate: it is far better in urban areas since wealth determines access to sanitation and medical services. Therefore, the poor in rural areas are most affected by the consequences of poverty.” In Congo the majority of the population cannot access proper medical services or proper nutrition while the other 20% can easily access these things.
It’s a real shame that life is like this in Congo due to the fact things in Congo were not nearly this bad before the year 1994. Once the DRC got into conflict with their neighboring nation Rowanda, things became much worse. Ever since then the country has been dealing with political unrest and violence which is the main reason for the insanely high poverty rates. When a country is experiencing such high levels of poverty and doesn’t have a government in place to help out its people, everyone else suffers besides the rich. My heart goes out to the people of the DRC and I hope these people can soon get the help they so desperately need.
Resources
Project, Borgen. “Facts about Poverty in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” The Borgen Project, Borgen Project Https://Borgenproject.org/Wp-Content/Uploads/The_Borgen_Project_Logo_small.Jpg, 18 Dec. 2019, borgenproject.org/facts-about-poverty-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/.
