How Many Children Are in Poverty?

The question “how many children are in poverty?” has a couple of answers. About half of all people living in extreme poverty are children, meaning that 356 million kids around the world live on less than $2.15 a day.[1] But there are around a billion kids globally who live in multidimensional poverty, meaning they don’t have proper access to necessities such as education, healthcare, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water.[2]

With the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, nations have agreed to end extreme childhood poverty. These goals call for multidimensional poverty to be halved by 2030, working to build a world where all children have what they need to thrive and meet their full potential.[3] There has been some great progress toward ending child poverty, but there is still a long way to go.

GFA World is among the organizations working to meet this goal in the poorest places in Africa and Asia. Through child sponsorship programs in several Asian nations and in Kigali, Rwanda, thousands of children are receiving life-changing, compassionate care.

GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program began in 2004 and was designed to take a holistic approach to education, investing in the minds, emotions and bodies of the students. Food, clothing, encouragement, medical care and childhood fun are built in to the program to improve the children’s lives and prepare them to be valuable citizens.

There are more than 70,000 kids enrolled in the child sponsorship program, and there are countless success stories. Aayush, for example, joined GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program at 10 years old. He is now a capable young man pursuing his goal of becoming a teacher.[4]


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