I have recently been reading a life changing book by Peter Singer The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty

Based on this I present 5 reasons why it is important to help children in poverty:

1. Because 27,000 children under 5 die everyday (10 million a year) from poverty related causes i.e. a football stadium full every day. If this was on the news it would shock us.

2. Because it will make you happier to help. Helping others provides meaning and fulfillment which in turn are key ingredients for making us happy.

3. Because ethically it is the right thing to do. If we saw a child suffering most people would intervene especially if the cost of doing so was not that great to us.

4. Because if enough people donated a small proportion of their income each week (Singer suggests 5%) extreme child poverty could be eliminated. 10 years ago 20 million children died a year, now that has reduced to 10 million. Things are improving. It is within our power to stop this.

5. From a neuropsychological perspective child poverty affects brain development- see this latest study to show this . Experiencing child poverty affects that persons whole life. As I have said in previous posts intervening to help children will change society in the long run.

If you are a skeptic (like me) you will want to know that any help you give will be effective and goes to the people who need it. Check out www.givewell.net and www.intelligentgiving.com for programmes that make a difference.