The ripple effects of decisions made in an Oval office over a period of 415 days are reflected in stark numbers. They tell stories reflected in the life of one mother named, Rovina.
By The Numbers
I was driving home from meetings in southern Alberta on Thursday, listening to a podcast. The number 700,000 caught my attention. That’s a small number compared to the 7 billion plus people on the planet. But each digit is a person. A girl, a man, a teenager. Someone’s child. Some child’s parent.
Don’t miss the stories behind the statistics.
168
When the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school was destroyed in a missile strike in Minab, southern Iran, on February 28, 2026 168 children were killed.
The Department of Defense chose not to investigate U.S. bombings that reportedly destroyed 22 Iranian schools and 17 healthcare facilities. 
3,468
Reports indicate at least 3,468 people have been killed in Iran since the conflict began, with over 26,500 injured.
13 American service members lost their lives and 381 are wounded.
1.5
As of May 12, 2026, the Pentagon estimates that the U.S. war in Iran has cost approximately $29 billion. The administration asked for a $1.5 trillion defence budget for 2027 – a 42 percent increase, or the largest expansion in military spending since World War II.
265
Following the outbreak of conflict in late February 2026, the world’s 500 richest people added a combined $265 billion to their net worth in a single day,
170
The Canadian oil industry has seen an additional $170 million in profits daily because of the war.
32
Many developing countries face severe shortages. The UN warns the Iranian crisis could push an additional 32 million people into poverty due to high food and fuel costs.
6
For more than six decades, the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, has helped dozens of low- and middle-income countries, including conflict-stricken ones, to improve access to food, water, health care, and education. It’s helped stop disease outbreaks, revolutionize agricultural practices, and in some cases, promote democracy.
But in July 2025, USAID shuttered its doors for good.
757,000
The shutdown caused significant spikes in preventable deaths from malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. Significant impacts have been recorded in Nigeria, Uganda, Yemen, and Mozambique.
As of early 2026, over 757,000 people have died due to the suspension of aid.
Over 500,000 children are among the deceased.
Over 20 million children lost nutritional support, and nearly 6 million women lost access to safe childbirth locations.
An additional 14 million deaths are expected by 2030 directly related to the closure of USAID.
1
Rovina Naboi, a single mother of nine children, living in a Kenyan refugee camp, tried to save her severely malnourished daughter after U.S. support dried up. She took her daughter Jane, whose health has deteriorated due to malnutrition, to a clinic and stayed with her there for 10 days. But she felt compelled to leave with Jane—still seriously ill—because she learned that her other children, left alone at home, had not eaten for days. Arriving home, Naboi managed to find food for her other children.
But Jane died the next day.
God have mercy.
The numbers break me, but not as much as the support of Christians for Christless behaviour.
Please post a comment in the chat below. What do the numbers mean to you?
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