All is not lost when people such as these give their time and resources so readily to help children that are most at need. Two agencies. and individuals, that fit together admirably to try to meet some of the needs of children of less than fortunate circumstance are People Improvement Organization (PIO) and Kids International Dental Services.(KIDS)

” We provide dental care to children in orphanages where they come after being abandoned by parents, family members. They are forgotten children of sex slavery, dead parents of AIDS, gang violence, street accidents. We have seen and treated over 1000 children during our stay in Cambodia”.

Across the world, traffickers supply millions of human beings for use in forced labor activities such as domestic service, or work in rice fields, sweatshops, cocoa plantations, or mines. Some are trafficked into the commercial sex industry. Trafficking touches every single nation – America, Europe, Africa, Asia & more. There are an estimated 27 million people enslaved in our world right now. And human trafficking is the third most profitable illegal activity, right under arms dealing and drug trade.

The Municipal Dump in Phnom Penh was the scene of abject poverty and hardship. It closed its gates in 2009 but is this the end of the story, what has happened to the people who worked as scavengers on the dump. The new dump has been moved several miles outside of the city and NO scavenging is to be allowed.

We’ve all seen the images and heard the statistics. Hunger–indeed starvation–is something that people face all over the world. Many people in Africa and Asia are just one poor harvest away from starvation.

In Djenne we met with Amadou, a local man who has taken action to solve the town’s orphan problem. Amadou and other community members recently started an organization to help place the orphans with nearby families that can afford to take in an extra child. The organization wants to take one step further and build an orphanage for their community.

Bamboo grows wild in that area, and is an important source of food for the people and animals who live there. However, once every 50 years, the bamboo blooms and forms fruit. This fruit and the seeds inside are a rich food source for the rats that live in the bamboo fields. With an abundant food source, the rats thrive and reproduce at an alarming rate. More and more rats survive to maturity as they sate themselves on the fruit of the twice-a-century bloom. The problem occurs when the bloom is over.

The UNHCR has partnered with Ben Affleck to bring awareness to the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The public is encouraged to share the short film and photos of the living conditions of the refugees in order to help raise money and awareness of the humanitarian crisis.

Voices of Sudan, a photography book by David Johnson, hopes to raise awareness of the daily strife of the victims of the genocide in Darfur. 100% of the profits go directly towards constructing wells and supplying medicine to refugees in the region.

Poverty exists in every part of the world. Poverty affects every race and every religion. Many of you have uploaded photos as a cry for help on behalf of those with no way to help themselves.

Wednesday, October 15th is Blog Action Day. This year’s theme is poverty. If you have a blog, you can join thousands of others in promoting awareness of poverty around the globe.