RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES TO WORLD POVERTY

LESS ECONOMICALLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (LEDC) WHAT ARE THEY? A Less economically developed country is a poor country where people live in poverty. People in LEDCs don’t have enough access to…… FOOD A child dies of starvation every 3 seconds. MONEY Many people live on less than 70p per day HEALTHCARE Nearly a million people die of malaria in Africa every year. WATER 6,000 people die every day from drinking dirty water EDUCATION A third of people in LEDC cannot read or write

LOCATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE CAUSES OF POVERTY LOCATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE Many LEDC are by the equator where there is less rain. A country needs rain if it is to grow food, if there is no rain there will be no food to eat or to sell to make money. WAR Spending money on weapons and soldiers rather than food. NATURAL DISASTERS When a natural disaster hits LEDC have no spare money to help people get the country back on its feet. UNFAIR TRADE AND DEBT LEDC have to sell their crops at low prices so they don’t make much money. Many LEDC are in debt and have to give what they do earn to the richer countries that they borrowed from. CORRUPT GOVERNMENTS Some governments do not spend the money donated in aid on their people. Instead they keep it for themselves. OVER POPULATION People in LEDC often have lots of children as they know that many will die young.

When you take advantage of a situation WHAT WOULD CHRISTIANS SAY? WORLD TRADE SYSTEM The system that governs what countries can buy and sell to each other and at what price TRADE GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE When countries trade with each other because there are products that they cannot produce EXPOLITATION When you take advantage of a situation LEDCS are exploited because we know they are desperate for money and so will accept us paying low prices for the goods they sell – they don’t want to risk ending up with nothing. WHAT WOULD CHRISTIANS SAY? INJUSTICE Christians would see the current trade systems as ‘unjust’ as they believe that all of the earth’s resources belong to God and so everyone should benefit equally from them. AUTHORITY In the Bible there is the story of… BELIEF This suggests… CONTEXT Therefore… The Good Samaritan That Jesus wanted people to help everyone, not just those from their group or country. Christians should be doing something to help make trade in LEDCs fair because at the minute it is not.

SHOULD EVERYONE BUY FAIR TRADE? WHAT WOULD CHRISTIANS SAY? THE PROBLEM Many workers in LEDCs are not paid a fair wage for the goods they produce. Workers are scared of asking for more money as they come from countries where there are many people without jobs and there are no job seekers allowance payments, to support them. In these countries, if you are out of work, you could starve to death. FAIR TRADE THE SOLUTION Fair Trade was set up to help give workers a fairer wage for the goods that they produce. Fair Trade also invests money in communities to pay for schools, healthcare and improved living conditions such as wells and sanitation. SHOULD EVERYONE BUY FAIR TRADE? The workers in LEDCs deserve a fairer wage for the goods that they produce Some of the money from Fair Trade is invested in improving the lives of people in LEDCs, eg by funding schools, healthcare and better living facilities such as wells. Fair trade products cost more and not everyone in Britain feels as though they could afford them. In the Bible there is the story of the Good Samaritan. This suggests that Christians should help people in need. Therefore Christians would support the idea of people buying fair trade products because it is a way of helping others. YES NO WHAT WOULD CHRISTIANS SAY?

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT WHICH IS MORE EFFECTIVE? EMERGENCY AID TYPES OF AID LONG TERM AID Aimed at keeping them alive and safe for the time being. Includes things such as food parcels, clothing and tents. Aimed at helping people look after themselves in the long run. Includes tools, vaccinations and education. For example schools and wells. For example food parcels and tents. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Sustainable development is when something can be ‘kept up’ for a long period of time. For example, sending food parcels to a country in need is not sustainable as when the parcels have gone, there will be nothing left. Sending farming equipment is sustainable development as this can be used to grow food for many years. VOLUNTARY SERVICE – When people give up their time for free to help other people. There are religious and non-religious organisations that run programmes of voluntary service. WHICH IS MORE EFFECTIVE? TYPE STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES EMERGENCY AID It makes a difference straight away It does not give people skills to help themselves LONG TERM AID It will make people able to look after themselves It can take a long time to see results

CHRISTIAN TEACHINGS ON HELPING THE POOR JUSTICE Things being fair STEWARDSHIP Looking after something COMPASSION Caring, kindness Food is not shared out fairly – some people have to much whilst others have too little. Christians believe that everything belongs to God so to not share out his food fairly is UNJUST Christians believe that God made them the stewards of the earth, this means that he put them incharge of looking after his creations. People are part of God’s creation, and by not helping them, especially when we know that they are in need, we are not doing a good job as stewards. One of the things that is supposed to set humans apart from animals are our feelings and emotions. Compassion is the idea that when we hear of others suffering, we should want to help them.

CHRISTIAN TEACHINGS ON HELPING THE POOR AUTHORITY In the Bible there is the story of… BELIEF This suggests… CONTEXT Therefore… The Good Samaritan. That Jesus wanted people to help everyone, not just those from their group or country. Christians should help those in LEDC, eg by buying fair trade products as they should help anyone in need, not just people from their own country. CHRISTIANS HAVE NOT DONE ENOUGH TO HELP LEDC. DO YOU AGREE? AGREE DISAGREE There is still poverty Not all Christians have given or done all that they can Christian Aid and other charities have worked incredibly hard to improve the lives of people in LEDC by providing schools and food.

THE WORK OF CHRISTIAN AID CLEAN WATER Builds wells to provide people with clean water. HEALTHCARE Sends trained volunteers to give medical care. WHO THEY HELP? Anyone who is in need. The name of the organisation comes from the reason why people help (because they are Christians). FAIR TRADE Christian Aid helped set up the Fair Trade Foundation which seeks to ensure that workers are paid a fair price what they produce. EDUCATION Christian Aid has funded schools so that children can get an education.