Poor and Female

More news from Yahoo

Summarized:
UN figures show that women represent 70 percent of the world's poor, own just one percent of titled land, and make up two-thirds of the world's illiterate people.

That's seventy percent of the nearly 2.5 billion poorest and most vulnerable people on earth.

Activists say impoverished women face particular hardships, especially in conflict zones where they are raped and abused, but they say women are often more careful than men with money and better at fostering support networks.

The UN estimates that half a million women die every year due to preventable complications from pregnancy.

The Women, Faith and Development Alliance (WFDA), an alliance of women from government, advocacy groups, faith-based organizations and Hollywood, has amassed fundraising commitments of 1.481 billion dollars at its first summit held at Washington's National Cathedral.
These funds promised so far will benefit over one billion poor women and girls around the world who live in crushing poverty. Specifically, the funds are to address maternal mortality and to stop violence against women, to improve education, basic health care, and water access.

Poverty experts estimate there are between 1.0 and 1.2 billion people around the world who exist on less than one dollar a day,