(THE FILM)

Welcome to the biggest story of our generation; the one that will force us beyond our beliefs and challenge every nation to think. In our world today there are 1.2 billion people suffering from a disease that has no reason to exist.

This disease is why 3.9 million people were killed in the Congo, why 1.8 million were tortured in Cambodia, and why over 400,000 of our fellow human beings have been raped and murdered in the Sudan. This is the story of you and me and all of us standing up and re-affirming the power of what it means to be a human being. This is the story of our generation’s unique opportunity to eradicate extreme poverty.

Through stunning animation, compelling visuals, and the scientists, researchers, and humanitarians working on the ground, this film exposes the problem, provides the solution, and lets every one of us know exactly what we can do to help.

This is the story of humanity at its worst and hopefully humans at their best. When we judge the success or failure of our global world today, based on how it addresses the social, physical, and psychological needs of its people, the reports are very difficult to stomach.

Every day over 20,000 human beings die in Africa alone because of extreme poverty and hunger. Many assume Africa is to blame in someway from distorted notions of corrupted governments, immoral citizens, or even the worst--genetic disparity. The rampant inequality of the western world has never been fully conquered.

Over the past years the citizens of the United States have been misdirected and misinformed about this crisis. Every year our president meets with the global community to sign agreements that, if followed through on, would save millions of lives in the poorest countries. These events are given enormous press attention and positive publicity for the rich world. Somehow those funds never make it across the ocean.

We are delivering less Official Development Assistance now than we were in the 1980’s. It is expected that the war in Iraq will end up costing almost 2 Trillion in US expenditure. This is more than 15% of the US’s total 13.2 Trillion dollar purchasing power. Every two weeks the US spends more on the Iraq war than it does on Foreign aid for the entire year. Being that the United States is leading the war against terror it seems prudent to examine the fact that terrorism is directly linked to extreme poverty. The key reason terrorism is able to spread is because the countries and people it exploits are trapped by poverty. To think that we could eradicate this disease with a solid commitment of only 0.7% of GDP is a trivial cost for the benefits we would receive.