Less than 1 percent of the US budget goes to foreign aid. Yep, that’s right. Only 1% is for helping the world’s poor. In general, people think that at least 30% of the American budget goes to help other countries. What a shock it is to learn that it is way less, like a bucket of cold water.

Here are other facts that you might find surprising.

1. Poor people in developing countries spend 60-80% of their income only on food. Consider this, for every dollar, a poor person would use (at least) 60 cents to eat. Then, he has to find a way to make the rest last for other things like clothes, school, paying bills, etc.

2. Statistics show that 165 million people suffer from childhood malnutrition. They would be able to form a circle around the earth.

3. Around 3.5 million children under the age of 5, die from malnutrition every year. That would be 17.5 million children in 5 years and 35 million children dead in 10 years.

4. UNESCO reported that about 59 million children don’t go to school and the majority are girls. Those numbers have increased since the pandemic.

5. If you thought the previous fact did not have a serious effect, you are wrong. As a result, 63% of the world’s adult illiterate population are women (meaning 479 million women cannot read).

6. There are 26 countries whose rate of extreme poverty is over 40%. Only 2 of them are NOT in sub-Saharan Africa.

7. Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tons) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tons). Can you imagine which countries produce the majority of ‘‘waste’’ food?