Poverty is a major problem in our world today where people cannot afford the basic necessities needed to survive. Every night approximately 1.02 billion people go to bed hungry. 1 With a world population of approximately 6.8 billion, this is approximately 17.64% of the world's population. 2 While trying to earn money to survive, people in poverty are exposed to crowded living conditions that result in increased exposure to contagious and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. 2 The other deadly disease associated with poverty is AIDS. 3 The need to earn more often translates into having more children, but due to a lack of education on safe sexual practices, sexually transmitted diseases are rampant in poverty-stricken areas. When parents contract HIV, HIV is passed to newborns and the cycle continues causing a recursive cycle of AIDS death. The reality is that poverty is a silent killer that is ignored by most, but by opening our eyes and taking a stand against poverty we can live in a world free of poverty. We all hear stories about poverty in our world through the media sharing how we can make a difference. However, we choose to do nothing. Maybe we don't really understand the problem and how important it is, or we aren't aware of what we can do to solve it. As individuals we can do a lot to eliminate poverty from our world, but we often don't know where to start to join the fight. Carrie Underwood says it best in her song “Change” when she says “What will you do when/You're watching TV/And a commercial comes on/Yeah, you know the type/Flashing lights/Pictures of a needy child/For a dime a day you can save a life /Call the/number reach out/Or do... middle of paper... call us one step closer to living in a poverty free world The options available to end this battle are endless and ce There's something for everyone. Whether it's sponsoring a child, making a donation, running a fundraiser or volunteering with an organization that helps poverty-stricken communities, there's something for everyone to put an end once and for all to this sad chapter in the history of our world Works Cited1 http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/20568/icode/2 http: //en.wikipedia. org/wiki/World_population3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disseases_of_poverty4 http://www.metrolyrics.com/change-lyrics-carrie-underwood.html5 http://www.poverty .com/internationalaid.html6 http://orgs.tigweb.org/action-against-poverty-aapCorbett, Thomas J. “Poverty.” Microsoft® Encarta® 2006 [CD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005.