1. RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES
TO WORLD POVERTY

2. LESS ECONOMICALLY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES (LEDC)
WHAT ARE THEY?
A Less economically developed country is a poor country where people live in poverty.
Examples in include:
Angola
Ethiopia
Zambia
Sudan
WHERE ARE THEY?
Many LEDC are situated around the equator. Being near the equator can increase a country’s chance of being poor as they are subject to hotter weather which can lead to droughts, which leads to crop failure and results in farmers having nothing to eat or sell.
People in LEDCs don’t have enough access to……
FOOD
800 million people do not have enough food.
A child dies of starvation every 3 seconds.
MONEY
A million people in developing countries have to live on less than 70p per day
HEALTHCARE
900,000 people die of malaria in Africa every year – this could be prevented with vaccinations.
200,000 women die in childbirth in LEDC every year – this could be prevented with better maternity care.
WATER
6,000 people die every day from diahorrea caused by drinking dirty water
EDUCATION
A third of people in LEDC cannot read or write

3. LOCATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE
CAUSES OF POVERTY
LOCATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Many LEDC are situated around the equator where it is significatnaly hotter and has less rainfall. This problem is being made worse by global warming, this is ironic as it seems to be the countries who contribute less to carbon emissions, are the ones being most affected by it. 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
Wars are expensive, some governments spend money on weapons and soldiers rather than ensuring people have food and clean water.
NATURAL DISASTERS
When a natural disaster hits LEDC have no spare money to help people get the country back on its feet.
OVER POPULATION
People in LEDC often have lots of children as they know that many will die young. In LEDCs there is no such thing as a state pension so people need to make sure at least one child survives so that they can be looked after in their old age.
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 (many have actually paid the original debt and are now just paying the interest on the loan).
CORRUPT GOVERNMENTS
Some governments do not spend the money raised either in taxes or donated in aid on their people. Instead some keep it for themselves and enjoy lavish lifestyles whilst their citizens starve.

4. 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.
Many farmers in LEDC are not allowed to use land to grow food for themselves, the landowners make them use it to grow cash crops such as cocoa that can be sold to western countries. The profits from these crops goes to the landowners and the farmers receive only a small amount of money for their efforts. The problem is then made worse as there is only a small amount of food in a country (that then becomes very expensive) and average people have little money with which to buy it.
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. They would not think it was fair that some countries had plenty of money to buy food whilst others did not have enough.
AUTHORITY
In the Bible there is the story of…
BELIEF
This suggests…
CONTEXT
Therefore…
The Good Samaritan, this is where the Samaritan helps the Jewish man, even though the two are enemies.
That Jesus wanted people to help everyone, not just those from their group or country.
Christians should be doing something to help change the current trade systems as they disadvantage people from LEDC. They would think that this was important because, even though the people suffering are not from their country, they are in need and they think it is important to help anyone in need, no matter who they are.
Cocoa is a cash crop, it cannot be eaten in it’s raw form and so is of no use as food to the country it is grown in.
Land that is used to grow cocoa could be used to grow food for the people of that country and this would help provide more food at a more affordable price.

5. 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, a lot of the profits end up being made by western countries who brand and sell the goods.
Workers are very often powerless to negotiate better pay as they are frightened of being unemployed as they come from countries where there are many people without jobs and there is no social welfare system, such as 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?
YES NO
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 sheep and the goats; the sheep are rewarded for helping those in need and the goats are punished for ignoring them. This suggests that Christians who help others will be rewarded and those who don’t will be punished. Therefore Christians would support the idea of people buying fair trade products because it is a way of helping others, for example, increasing their wages so that they have more money for food and education.
Christians would also see fair trade as a way of restoring justice as they believe that all of the earth’s resources belong to God and so everyone should benefit equally from them. If we look at the cocoa industry, there is a lot of injustice as western chocolate companies benefit from the cocoa to a much greater extent than the cocoa farmers from LEDCs.
WHAT WOULD CHRISTIANS SAY?

6. WHICH IS MORE EFFECTIVE? SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
EMERGENCY AID
TYPES OF AID
LONG TERM AID
Emergency aid given to people as a temporary measure in an emergency.
Aimed at keeping them alive and safe for the time being.
Includes things such as food parcels, clothing and tents.
A planned programme of help that can last many years.
Aimed at helping people be self sufficient (look after themselves) in the long run.
Includes tools, vaccinations and education.
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?
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.
TYPE
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
EMERGENCY AID
It makes a difference straight away
It can save lives
It cannot be sustained (kept up)
It does not give people skills to help themselves
LONG TERM AID
It will make people able to look after themselves
It will last for a long time
If everyone has died of starvation there will be no one left to go to school or drink from the well
It can take a long time to see results

7. CHRISTIAN TEACHINGS ON HELPING THE POOR
JUSTICE
Things being fair
STEWARDSHIP
Looking after something
COMPASSION
Caring, kindness
There is enough food and enough resources in the world for everyone to live well, the problem is that these are 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 and resources 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, ‘Let them have dominion over the earth’.
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.

8. CHRISTIAN TEACHINGS ON HELPING THE POOR
AUTHORITY
In the Bible there is the story of…
BELIEF
This suggests…
CONTEXT
Therefore…
The sheep and the Goats, this is where Jesus rewards the Sheep for helping others and punishes the Goats for ignoring them.
That those who help others will be rewarded and those who don’t will be punished.
Christians should help those in LEDC, eg by donating money or clothing as these countries are in need and those who don’t help will be punished.
The Good Samaritan, this is where the Samaritan helps the Jewish man, even though the two are enemies.
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.
‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for life’
Although this is not a Biblical teaching, many Christians are guided by this proverb and think that they should prioritise their efforts into helping people in LEDC be able to support themselves in the long term. This does not mean that they would not help people with emergency aid, as to do this would be ignoring people in need, which goes against their beliefs.
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, wells, vaccination programmes etc
Poverty is not just the responsibility of Christians
In the Bible there is the story of the Sheep and the Goats
This suggests that people should help those in need if they expect to get into Heaven.
Many Christians may say that people in general have not done all that they can to help the poor as we all regularly buy things that we don’t need, knowing that there are people suffering who could benefit from the money. This could be seen as wrong as we should be helping others.
WHAT WOULD CHRISTIANS SAY?

9. THE WORK OF CHRISTIAN AID CAMPAIGNING AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
WHO THEY HELP?
Anyone who is in need. The name of the organisation comes from the reason why people help (because they are Christians) – the charity helps anyone from any religion or country.
CLEAN WATER
Builds wells to provide people with clean water – 6,000 people die every day from drinking dirty water.
HEALTHCARE
Sends trained volunteers to give medical care. A major initiative is vaccinations (eg malaria and measles) as these will protect people in the future.
Much of the work done by Christian is long term aid as they are guided by the saying, ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for life’. Christian Aid do still help people in emergency situations, but their main focus is helping people to support themselves.
EDUCATION
Christian Aid has funded schools so that children can get an education and increase their chances of being able to find a well paid job when they are older.
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.
CAMPAIGNING AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
Christian Aid is currently campaigning for governments to lower their carbon emissions as a way of preventing climate change. LEDCs are the first people to suffer with climate change as their position around the equator means that they are suspectible to droughts and floods.