Ending Poverty in Africa p. 167

During June 2007, first lady Laura Bush visited a hospital clinic for people who have HIV or AIDS, which has received nearly $600,000 in direct aid from the USAID. This hospital has a vegetable garden that the patients tend to themselves as part of their treatment that emphasizes the importance of nutrition. Three months after her visit the Gates and Rockefeller foundations announced plans to spend $150 million over a five year period to help the agricultural productivity throughout Africa. An outline of things that need to be done in Africa to help them clime out of deep poverty:
Expand anti-HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, including care of AIDS orphans,
Expand family-planning services,
Provide more access to clean water,
Expand malaria-mitigation efforts and,
Begin training some of the 4 million new teachers Africa needs.

I am all for helping out other people and other countries in need but I don’t understand how the U.S government is handing out all this money to help with disease and poverty in Africa and we have the same thing happening in the U.S. Everywhere you turn there is a homeless person or family, or a family living in poverty, people with disease and babies being born addicted to drugs. How can we expect to help other countries when we have our own people suffering here in the states.