According to the World Bank, more than one billion people today live on less than $1 per day. About 70% of those people are women, and almost half of the popula- tion of sub-Saharan Africa survives at that income level. We know that every 3.5 seconds, a child dies in the developing world from poverty-related circumstances.

At endPoverty.org we are deeply committed to serving and empowering the very poor to lift themselves out of poverty. But what is poverty really?

While on the surface poverty is often defined as a lack of income or assets, in the day-to-day lives of the very poor, poverty becomes a network of disadvantages, each one exacerbating the others. The result is generation after generation of people who lack access to education, health care, adequate housing, proper sanitation and good nutrition. They are the most vulnerable to disasters, armed conflict and systems of political and economic oppression and they are powerless to improve their circumstances. These conditions often carry with them dysfunctional family and societal relationships, paralyzingly low self-esteem, and spiritual darkness. Poverty is a lack of hope.

It's clear that handouts and traditional aid are not enough to solve the problem of poverty and its many entanglements. EndPoverty.org seeks to equip the poor to free themselves from poverty in a holistic way.