Shocking New Statistics

Some new statistics were published in Monday's paper.  They are shocking, to say the least.

Honduras now claims a population of over 8 million people, 8,127,696 to be exact.  Of those, 5,493,391 are considered to be poor.  That is almost 68%.  What the Honduran government defines as poor is anyone that cannot buy at least half of the basic food they need every month.  I would think anyone that cannot buy all the food they need for a month would be poor, but my opinion was not sought when making this determination. 

Currently, it takes $358 a month to buy the basic food for a family of five.  What it takes to buy basic food for a family of five each month is more than minimum wage, (minimum wage is about $324.00 a month).   I am quite sure I never ever, not even once, fed our family of five on $358.00 a month. 

Of the almost 5.5 million living in poverty, 3,810,354 (69%) live in extreme poverty which is defined as living on less than one US dollar each day.  That means dying of starvation. 

There is 54% unemployment.

These numbers are far worse than I thought.  I thought 50% of the population lived in poverty, not 68% and that 70% of those were in extreme poverty.  I also thought there was about 30-35% unemployment. 

These numbers are staggering.  There are thousands of children going to bed hungry each night.  And not receiving medical care.  And so much more.  But, it also means we still have a lot of work to do. 

Terri