What can $15 buy you? Lunch. A paperback novel. A movie ticket. Maybe a CD.

The economics of developing countries, however, are very different. For example, the average annual income in India is 36,000 rupees. That translates to roughly $1,000.

No one in Canada, the U.S., or Australia could live on only $1,000 per year. For many of us that is one month’s mortgage payment.

So how do they do it? What does a rupee buy you? Economists use something called Purchasing Power Parity to see how much cheaper goods are when you compare countries. India has one of the cheapest rates in the world. In simple terms, you can buy a lot more with 1 rupee in India than you can with $1 in the U.S, even though a rupee itself is worth much less than a dollar. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is.

Generally speaking, food is very inexpensive in India. So is the cost of labour, which helps keep prices down. Even medical treatment costs less in India. It would be wrong to say everything is cheaper in India but for most necessary items that is certainly the case. At least from the point of view of developed countries.

We often talk about what $15 can do and we aren’t kidding when we say it pays for educating a child for a whole year. The problem we face, however, isn’t educating just one child. There are literally hundreds of millions of people in India who desperately need our help. There are more illiterate people in the state of Bihar than there are people in Canada and Australia combined. There are more illiterate people in India than there are Americans.

Fortunately, every little bit helps because every little bit truly does go a long way.