Today is October 17th. For most, it’s just another day—work, school, errands, meals, routines. But for millions, it’s a reminder that they’re living another day in the unyielding grip of poverty. They don’t have the luxury of routine, just the unending struggle to survive. Today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This isn’t about numbers or annual observances. It’s about acknowledging the harsh truth we often turn away from: poverty is a soul-crushing, hope-stealing, life-shortening crisis, and we can’t let it remain hidden in the shadows any longer.

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Imagine waking up every day knowing that no matter how hard you try, you’ll never have enough. That’s the brutal reality for over 700 million people right now. Every ten seconds, a child dies because their family can’t afford even the most basic healthcare. Every night, a mother goes to bed hungry so that her children might have just a little more to eat. Poverty isn’t just about the absence of money—it’s the absence of opportunity, the absence of choice, the absence of hope.

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It’s not only about what they lack; it’s about what they face. Poverty means daily choices we wouldn’t dream of making. It’s choosing between medicine and food, school fees or rent, today’s meal or tomorrow’s. Could you look your child in the eye and tell them there’s no dinner tonight? Could you hold a sick parent’s hand and accept there’s no money for the care they need? Imagine making those choices over and over, every single day. This is the constant, unrelenting reality for millions. And here we are, just bystanders.

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Poverty is a thief. It robs people of their potential, of their chance to escape. It strips children of their futures, steals dignity from the elderly, and stifles the dreams of entire communities. When a child misses out on education because they can’t afford the fees, the world loses out on a future doctor, a teacher, an artist, a change-maker. We all lose something when poverty prevails.

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The numbers are staggering. They’re haunting. 1 in 10 people in our world live on less than $1.90 a day—barely enough to survive, let alone thrive. And yet, we look away, distracted by our own lives, while the suffering continues. We can tell ourselves that it’s not our problem, that poverty is just too big, too complex to solve. But think about this: if we all turned away from the problem, it would never change. We cannot wait for others to act. We are the ones who can make a difference. We must make a difference.

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There are ways we can act. We can lift our voices to advocate for policies that address the root causes of poverty. We can support organizations working on the ground to provide clean water, food, and education. We can make choices in our daily lives that support fair wages and ethical labor practices, helping to build economies that uplift rather than exploit. We can listen, truly listen, to the stories of those who live in poverty—because poverty isn’t faceless. It has a voice, a story, a name.

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If you feel uncomfortable reading this, if it stirs something inside you, good. That discomfort is where change begins. As Desmond Tutu once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” We can’t remain neutral, not when lives are on the line. Not when we have the power to do something about it. Today, let’s turn our discomfort into action. Let’s acknowledge the suffering of those we might never meet but whose pain we have a responsibility to ease. Let’s do something—anything—to help eradicate poverty and create a world where no one has to face the brutal choices that poverty demands.

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Remember: it doesn’t take a hero to make a difference. It takes compassion, it takes empathy, and above all, it takes action. Poverty can be eradicated. But it won’t happen unless we each do our part. Today, let’s be the difference.