For many children, mothers and families, the issue is neither the rise and fall of stocks nor the value of the dollar, but rather access to food and water.

(New York) WHO IS BEING IMPACTED the most by the global economic crisis? Children. According to the latest estimates, 400,000 thousand more children could die in 2009 as a result of the crisis. That works out to 22 more every hour.

For many children, mothers and families, the issue is neither the rise and fall of stocks nor the value of the dollar, but rather access to food and water.

There is no justification for these gratuitous and avoidable deaths. Oxfam estimates that the world’s financial businesses have already received or been promised 8.4 trillion dollars for rescue operations. A mere week’s worth of interest from that sum would be enough to save the half a million mothers who die during pregnancy or childbirth in developing countries due to preventable causes rooted in poverty.

20 DOLLARS FOR THE POOR

It is estimated that all of the current aid from rich countries to the three billion poor people in the world amounts to an expenditure of only 20 dollars per capita.

Increasing aid to the levels that were approved by the rich countries themselves in the United Nations, but have not been met – 0.7 percent of their GDP – would immediately save millions and millions of lives. UNICEF calculates that the hundreds of thousands who die from measles could be saved with a vaccine that costs less than a dollar. Malaria kills a million children every year, but if they had mosquito nets – one of which costs less than ten dollars – their deaths could be avoided.

In nearly every faith on earth, ancient wisdom strongly cautions against being indifferent when faced with these injustices. In the the Old Testament, God commands “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor”, and the Israeli prophets command: “There will be no poor among you”.

TO OFFEND THE POOR IS TO OFFEND GOD

In the Proverbs, it is established that “he who oppresses the poor offends God; he who stands alongside them honors him”. Saint Thomas points out: “the bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry”. Confucius denounced King Hui of Liang along these lines: “There are people dying of hunger in the streets, and you don’t open the doors of your granaries to them. When people die you say: ‘it is not my responsibility; it’s the year’”. How is this any different from stabbing a person, killing him and saying “it wasn’t me; it was the knife”?

The crisis, which, according to what was admitted at the G-20 summit, was caused by serious ethical mistakes in the public policies of prior governments and the conduct of some of the most powerful sectors of the economy in the United States and the rich world, is bringing immense suffering to the humble, who are receiving the full brunt of its consequences.

SENSITIVITY TO THE MOST VULNERABLE

Now is the time for strengthening public policies that protect the weakest to be an absolute priority. And the time is also ripe to mobilize volunteers. It is encouraging that in the midst of a full-blown crisis President Obama has put forth an initiative, recently passed by Congress, which greatly expands community service through new innovative programs and a five year, six billion dollar investment to help support the volunteers.

In Latin America, where a recent CEPAL estimate says that the economy will shrink 0.3 percent and unemployment will rise 9 percent, which will overwhelmingly affect the 190 million poor people, it is urgent that we think about those poor citizens when designing public policy, and at the same time revitalize volunteer service.

More than anything else, future generations will judge the current one on how much sensitivity and solidarity was displayed in its actions towards the most helpless in the middle of this crisis.