If you haven’t already done so, check out the winners of the 2013-2014 World of 7 Billion student video contest, where high school students were tasked with illustrating the connection between population growth and global challenges. This week we are featuring the winners of the Global Poverty category as part of our “People’s Choice” awards and asking viewers to vote on their favorite. You can participate by voting for your favorite Global Poverty video on our Facebook page. View the videos in the comments section and cast your vote by “Liking” your favorite.

The winning videos demonstrate creative videography and sound research on how our ever-growing population strains resources and locks people into a cycle of poverty. Tim Eddy displays the poverty trap concept visually; in his video, written facts on poverty and population growth converge at the end to form an animated bear trap. Juliet Gleason also experimented with animations, using her experience with photography to create a stop-motion video. She took two weeks’ worth of photos of pennies and threaded it together into a fluid animation that explores what poverty means to people around the world. Thaara Shankar compares girls’ education in the US and Haiti, showing how poverty limits one’s opportunities. Her hand-drawn graphics and text emphasizes that population growth will further strain resources and exacerbate poverty. Simon Elischer starts locally, beginning with facts on his home country of Zambia’s growth rate and then connecting this to global trends and poverty issues. Each of these videos is unique in its approach and message, but all compel viewers to take an active interest in global poverty issues.