Whether caused by destiny, a natural catastrophe, or mankind, poverty was and will always be the one nightmare haunting human beings. Those who are already poor spend their lives struggling to get rid of poverty; and those who aren’t, spend their lives fighting to avoid it…

Regardless of the form, in which poverty comes, the result is always the same: pain, embarrassment, suffering, and this intolerable feeling of inequality, difference, and injustice. But it has to be said that man-made poverty remains the most difficult form of poverty to be endured by the less-fortunate among us. And when it’s man-made, poverty is indeed “the worst form of violence” as Mahatma Gandhi stated many years ago.

We humans are capable of making individuals as well as entire nations poor so easily just by turning our evil dark side to the active-mode. Our ignorance and greed, both stemming from our disgusting selfishness, are the reason we steal the savings of a retired old man; the reason we kill the only member of a family that can actually earn money; the reason we wage wars destroying the economies and generations of countries; the reason we turn a blind eye to those who are in need, even if they were so close; and the reason we humiliate those who are poor and deprive them of their basic right of survival, equal treatment and security.

And as Charles Darwin stated:“If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin”. Looking at the world today, it’s easy to see that we’ve sinned, big time, and for such a sin we shall pay, in fact, we’re already paying. Aristotle once said:“poverty is the parent of revolution and crime”, we caused a lot of poverty around us, and now we have to deal with the aftermath. We need to wake up and do something if we really wanted to overcome poverty and makeup for the mess we’ve created in our societies. But what many people don’t realize is that it’s our duty and our responsibility to end poverty, it’s not something nice you do if you feel like it; just as Nelson Mandela puts it: “Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life”; and Muhammad Yunus also agrees: “This is not charity. This is business: business with a social objective, which is to help people get out of poverty”.

Poverty knows no mercy. It attacks any one of any age, any gender, any religion, any position… Don’t think that things remain the way they are forever, everything changes, everything comes to an end,. And just like the poor can become rich, the rich may also become poor. That’s why you need to think of others and know that one day you might be in their shoes, even if you did all you could to avoid such a tragedy… life is full of surprises.

Start now by learning and teaching others to share, give away and help. You can also teach someone a profession, help educate someone, help someone find a job … or the least you could do is “remember the poor, it costs nothing” -Mark Twain.