In the world's most impoverished nations, the majority of people do not have access to clean water, adequate housing or basic health care. These countries are paying debt service to wealthy nations and institutions at the expense of providing these essential services to their citizens. The United Nations Development Program estimated in 1999 that 19,000 children die every day as a result of the debt crisis.

African nations are at the epicenter of both the debt and the AIDS crises. In addition to facing drought, famine and the effects of regional conflict, six thousand Africans die daily as a result of HIV/AIDS. Despite this reality, African countries are paying almost $15 billion dollars a year to wealthy Western nations and international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

When countries receive debt relief, they invest it for the benefit of their populations:

Tanzania has used their savings on debt service to increase education spending and eliminate school fees for elementary school education. Almost overnight, an estimated 1.6 million children returned to school.

Cameroon, which received a cut of more than $100 million in debt service payments, reinvested its money to transform its small-scale, fragmented HIV/AIDS program into a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategic plan.

(Source - Jubilee USA Network)