Movie stars, models, musicians, athletes and politicians can often dominate the media and command the world’s attention when they promote social or environmental causes.

Famine and poverty in Africa are serious issues, which have commanded the attention of today’s most influential celebrities worldwide. Celebrities have opened doors and increased awareness, from athletes, actors to politicians; they are vocal, passionate and driven to help increase aid flows to ending global poverty.

My first introduction to the serious social issues facing Africa was in 1985, when Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie and Quincy Jones introduced us to, ” We are the World”, to help raise funds for famine-relief in Ethiopia. This was the first time I realized how much fame is an influential tool that can actually shape our views.

The paragons of celebrity activism, are the ones who are shedding light on the world’s poorest countries and helping in the fight to save lives.

You may wonder why poor countries remain poor. Some interconnected factors like geography, industrialization, colonialism, education, resources, infrastructure, overpopulation, investment, government and debt make poor countries remain poor. We will take a brief look at each one of the top ten poorest countries of the world. I have also included some interesting facts on poverty and famine and highlighted several celebrities who are taking a political stance and what they are doing to help end global poverty

Out of the top ten poorest countries, nine are in Africa. I have included The Solomon Islands. Although it is not an African country, it is the fourth poorest country in the world as of 2008. A poor county is one with GDP per capita $765 or less, according to CIA fact book 2008. The highest of GDP per capita among these ten poorest countries was $700 while the lowest one was only $300.

Difficult as it might be to grasp, looking at the unstable situation’s of the ten poorest countries of the world overwhelming images in the media of the despondent eyes of weakened children, displaced families and by the sheer numbers of people starving to death with half of humanity living on two dollars or less a day and of that population, 40 percent, or 1.2 billion human beings, try somehow to survive on one dollar a day or less, as hard as it is to imagine this is reality. (more…)