The media informs the world about what goes on in Africa but other destitute regions such as South America receive minimal publicity attention.  People know about the genocide going on in Darfur or see images of how poor the continent is, but few know about the religious conflicts that terrorize the civilians in the Middle East or the human trafficking problem in Asia.

“Every time I watch TV, I always see those commercials that are like ‘Donate money to Africa, call this number to adopt a child, or show images of how poor Africa is,’ but I usually skip over them,” junior Mehreen Mir said. “It’s played so many times that I feel like I probably have it memorized already.”

Africa remains the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped continent due to a variety of causes including widespread diseases, corrupt governments, high level of illiteracy and constant tribal and military conflicts such as the Darfur Genocide.

“I know a lot about what goes on in Africa like HIV, malnutrition and genocides,” junior Priya Panditi said. “We learn it in school, see it on TV and read it in the newspaper. But it seems like I only know about Africa and not other places that are probably just as poor as Africa.”

AIDS infects more than 20 percent of adults and kills more than 2,190,000 people every year in Africa. Here in the United States, heart disease claims the lives of 80,000,000 people and infects 35.3 percent of the population.

“I’ve lived here almost all my life and I didn’t even know that heart disease was so serious here,” Mir said. “It’s pretty eye opening that many of us have lived here for more than ten years, yet we don’t even know our own statuses but are well informed of places that are a billion miles away.”

The money Africa receives to treat AIDS through charity exceeds what the United States obtain for heart disease organizations according to Aid for Africa. Africa receives too much attention and the media neglects to recognize other countries’ poverty.

“I don’t think it’s fair at all that the people in Third World countries like Asia don’t get the attention that people in Africa get,” Panditi said. “I mean, the only difference between them is their ethnicity and background, but the severity and importance is the same. One shouldn’t get all the attention.”

Though it seems as if all the attention focuses on Africa, more than a million charities in the United States reach out to other impoverished regions according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics.

“I guess that’s a pretty good start for trying to help other places, but it’s not enough, and it won’t be enough until the media diverts some of its attention from Africa to other regions,” Panditi said.