Creating such a balance between nations can improve the situation in the world today because
we know . . .
- that half of the world’s people live on less than $2 USD per day;
- that, according to statistics of the World Bank, 1.3 billion people live below the poverty line on less than $1.25 USD per day;
- that 1.8 billion people are undernourished, 825 million people are starving, and a child dies from hunger every 15 seconds;
- that the average life expectancy in, for instance, Zambia is less than 40 years, and in Namibia it is less than 50 years;
- that every fifth child in Zambia dies before it reaches the age of five.
We understand . . .
- that the CO2 emissions from the powerful industrialized nations of the Northern Hemisphere are destroying the ozone layer over the Southern Hemisphere;
- that the HIV-AIDS epidemic that has been reduced to a chronic disease in Europe still poses a key problem for disadvantaged countries: HIV-AIDS can be controlled, at considerable cost, but in these countries the disease remains fatal, as it always has, because the financial means are lacking;
- that the tremendous medical advances that we benefit from in Europe do not reach broad areas of our planet;
- that infections which by our standards are commonplace, like an inflamed appendix, are often fatal elsewhere.
We work actively in that . . .
- with all our energy, we bring aid to the needy;
- we feel a responsibility for the elimination of the inequalities;
- we are always looking for new allies;
- through our support in partnership, we sustainably enable people to solve their problems themselves.
