Imagine waking up one day and wonder whether you will starve for the entire day or only have a small amount of food on the table. Or worry that one day you won't have a place to sleep, that you might get sick and not be able to go to the doctor, that you might not be able to learn and work for the rest of your life. You fear for your family and yourself. This is the reality of poverty.

Although this may seem unbelievable to the majority of us, it is actually the case for nearly 3 billion people… almost half of the world's population. It is a tragic issue that they live in such situations. They wouldn't even be able to afford three meals per day.

"Well, they can just go find work, right?" some of you might say. Technically, yes. However, it is not that simple; people living below the poverty line cannot simply look for employment. This is affected by a variety of factors. One of them is their lack of education; the majority of them drop out of school to work in the hopes of earning more money to cover their basic needs. However, this leaves them without the necessary literacy and numeracy skills for higher-paying jobs.

Now, even if they do find employment or work, the process is not that simple. Their monthly pay is just enough to disqualify them from government assistance programs. This is the catch. They find out too late that it is not enough to cover their basic needs, including childcare while they are at work and transportation to and from work. They now have somehow less money than they did when they were unemployed.

The global poverty exit rate is 56% after one year in poverty; but after seven years, it drops to 13 percent. The location of a particular area may also be a contributing factor to poverty. This is seen in Indonesia, our home country, where poverty is increasingly evident in rural areas. This is because Indonesia has a lot of small islands, making it hard to reach.

There are corrective measures from the government, but this issue remains extremely large. The government has helped in providing assistance to those living below the poverty line in Indonesia. As a result, the percentage of people living in poverty has decreased from 10.19% to 10.14%. Still, this is not a very insignificant step.

There are certainly many additional possibilities, such as:

1. Expanding the number of jobs available to people.
2. Putting in more effort to assist people with programs that cover their basic needs.
3. Making education more available to all, and more!

But, you know, not just the government can help, right? We too can! We can support charities and individuals in need by donating food, clothing, and other necessities. We can boost our nation’s economy by purchasing local goods. Changing our mindset is one of the most important steps. We can't continue to say, "Oh! It’s a shame they are poor, but they can just find jobs. They shouldn’t be so lazy!"

Instead, we should assist them; perhaps even a small contribution can have a large impact on them! Another point is that education should not be belittled. Education is extremely important in our modern society, and everyone should have access to it.

Now, what are you going to do to help end poverty?