Are people around the world aware of the level of poverty reached in third world countries?

Given that newsflashes arrive on our television screens or web browsers from all around the world, 24/7, most people in wealthier countries are likely to appreciate that a high proportion of the people they are sharing the planet with are in far worse circumstances. But these bulletins of populations struggling in poor accommodation or displaced by famine and warfare only have an ability to shock on a temporary basis. Widespread initiatives to better the lives of poverty-stricken communities in the third world are rare. Individual agencies perform a tireless but usually thankless task to introduce food and medical aid to impoverished communities.

But the perceptions of the extent to which the third world faces grinding poverty and its attendant issues of disease, malnourishment, and lack of education, is often a lottery. For instance, 30 years ago the world's attention focussed on Ethiopia after a BBC report on the famine in the Horn of Africa translated into an outpouring of empathy and charitable donations. However, in 2014 no fewer than 12 countries in Africa experienced armed conflict, which always has a devastating effect on civilian populations, ruining economies and causing widespread loss of livestock. Much as western societies do like to help out those less fortunate, there is such a thing as 'charity fatigue.'