Statement of fact

Sixty five percent of the world’s population live on the African and Asian sub-continents and most of these billions of people are children under the age of fifteen.

Famine, floods and natural disasters, virulent diseases, volatile social and political climates, religious insurgence and violent military conflict are rife in most of these regions. Ailing economies are further depleted and unable to support effective social security programmes.

Unfortunately, young people and the poor suffer the most in these deplorable circumstances. Children are forced into crime, slave labour and war, and there are recent reports of a flourishing trade in body parts forced off young ones.

• 1.2 billion people live on less than $1.00 a day.
• 2.4 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation.
• 113 million children are unable to attend school, two thirds of these are girls.
• In 2000, 830 million people went to bed hungry everyday.
• The number of malnourished people in Africa has doubled since 1970.
• Treatable and preventable but virulent diseases such as Hepatitis, Tuberculosis and Malaria still claim tens of millions of lives every year.
• Most of the infected or affected victims are children.
• There are generations of youth that have known nothing but war and violence all their lives.

A BASIC Trust Story