And whoever saves a life, it shall be rewarded as though he has saved the life of all humankind.
THE QURAN
Such is the premium God has placed on human life. So we have taken our mission of ministering to health and wellbeing (comfort and happiness) in the world from there. Yet the monstrous growth of global poverty now robs nearly half of humanity – more than 3 billion people who live on $2.50 a day or less – of both these God-given rights and pursuits. Half these poor — 1.3 billion — are utterly destitute, living on just $1.25 a day or less. Innocent children make up a third of these impoverished, a shocking 22,000 of whom pay every day for our neglect with their lives. Some 805 million of our fellow human beings don’t have enough food for the day. Another 750 million can’t get clean drinking water. About 2,300 die daily because of the lack of sanitation and hand hygiene this lack brings about. It is shocking that in the midst of our vast wealth, abundant food production, and epidemic obesity, hunger is the leading cause of death in our world, when less than a fourth of the earnings of just the 100 richest people on earth could end global poverty.