Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including clothing, food, and shelter. However, poverty is more, much more than not having enough money. The World Bank Organisation describes poverty in this way: poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time.
“Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways. Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action- for the poor and the wealthy alike – a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities”
In addition to a lack of poverty, poverty is about not being to participate in recreational activities; and being able to send children on a day trip with their schoolmates or to a holiday party; not being to pay for medications for an illness. These are all costs of being poor. Those people who are barely able to pay for food and shelter simply can’t consider these other expenses. When people are excluded within a society, when they are not well educated and when they have a higher incidence of illness, there are negative consequences for society. We all pay the price for poverty. The increased cost on the health system, the justice system, and other systems that provide supports to those living in poverty has an impact on our economy.
While much progress has been made in measuring and analyzing poverty, the World Bank Organisation is doing more work to identify indicators for the other dimensions of poverty. This work includes identifying social indicators to track education, health, access to service, vulnerability, and social exclusion.
There is no one cause of poverty, and the results of it are different in every case. Poverty varies considerably depending on the situation. Feeling poor in Canada is different from living in poverty in Russia or Zimbabwe. The differences between rich and poor within the borders of a country can also be great.
Despite the many definition, one thing is certain; poverty is a complex societal issue. No matter how poverty is defined, it can be agreed that it is an issue that requires everyone’s attention. It is important that all members of our society work together to provide the opportunities for all our members to reach their full potential. It helps all of us to help one another.
WHAT IS POVERTY?
The term poverty refers to the state or condition in which people or communities lack the financial resources and essential for a minimum standard of living. As such, their basic human needs cannot be met. Poverty – stricken people and families may go without proper housing, clean water, healthy food, and medical attention. Each nation may have it’s own criteria for determining the poverty line and counting how many of its people live in poverty is a socioeconomic condition that is the result of multiple factors – not just income. These factors include race, sexual identity, sexual orientation, among others .
UNDERSTANDING POVERTY
Poverty refers to the lack of adequate financial resources such that individuals, households, and entire communities don’t have the means to subsist or acquire the basic necessities for a flourishing life. This means being so poor as to struggle to obtain food, clothing, shelter, and medicines.
WHAT CAUSES POVERTY
Poverty is a difficult cycle to break and often passes from one generation to the next. It is often determined by socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender ,and geography. Many people are born into poverty and have little hope if overcoming it. Others may fall into poverty because of negative economic conditions, natural disasters, or surging living costs as well as drug addiction, depression, and mental health issues.
Access to good schools, healthcare, electricity, clean drinking water, and other critical service remains elusive for many and is often determined by socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, and geography. Other root causes of poverty include :
Limited to no job growth
Poor infrastructure
Conflict and war
High cost of living
Social barriers
Lack of government support
For those able to move out of poverty, progress is often temporary. Economic shocks, food insecurity, and climate change threaten their gains and may force them back into poverty.
Typical consequences of poverty include alcohol and substance abuse, little to no access to education, poor housing and living conditions, and increased levels of disease. Heightened poverty is likely to cause increased tensions in society as inequality increases. These issues often lead to rising crime rates in communities affected by poverty.
HOW POVERTY IS MEASURED
Poverty is commonly measured using income thresholds in many countries, including the United States. Centralised body like the census bureau collect data and update the information on an annual basis based on inflation. This information, which is reported through the consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPIU), generally includes income thresholds compiled from different sizes and types of families / households. Each family member in a household that falls under the threshold is considered to be in poverty, according to the census bureau.
EFFECT OF POVERTY, HUNGER AND HOMELESSNESS ON CHILDREN AND TEENS
Rising inflation and an uncertain economy are deeply affecting the lives of millions of Americans, particularly those living in low-income communities. It may seem impossible for a family of four to survive on just over $27,000 per years or a single person on just over $15,000, but that’s what millions of people do every day in the United States. Approximately 37.9 million Americans, or just under 12%, now live in poverty, according to the U. S. Census bureau.
Additional data from the bureau shows that children are more likely to experience poverty than people over the age of 18. Approximately one in six kids 16% of all children, live in families with incomes below the official poverty line.
Those who are poor face challenges beyond a lack of resources. They also experience mental and physical issues at a much higher rate than those living above the poverty line. Read on for a summary of the myriad effect of poverty, homelessness, and hunger on children and youth. And for more information on apa’s work on issues surrounding socioeconomic status, please see the office of socioeconomic status.
WHO IS MOST AFFECTED
Poverty rates are disproportionately higher among most non-whites populations. Compared to 8.2% of White Americans living in poverty, 26.8% of American Indians and Alaska natives, 19.5% of Blacks, 17% of Hispanics and 8.1% of Asians are currently living in poverty.
Similarly, Black, Hispanics, and indigenous children are overrepresented among children living below the poverty line. More specifically, 35.5% of Black people living in poverty in the U. S are below the age of 18. In addition, 40.7% of Hispanic people living below the poverty line in the U. S are younger than age 18, and 29.1% of American Indians and native American children lived in poverty in 2018. In contrast, approximately 21% of white people living in poverty in the U. S are less than 18 years old.
Furthermore, families with a female head of household are more than twice as likely to live in poverty compared to families with a male head of household. Twenty_three percent of female- headed households live in poverty compared to 11.4% of male- headed households, according to the U. S census bureau.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP CHILDREN AND FAMILIES EXPERIENCING POVERTY, HUNGER, AND HOMELESSNESS?
There are many ways you can help fight poverty. You can:
Volunteer your time with charities and organisations that provide assistance to low-income and homeless children and families.
Donate money, food, and clothing to homeless shelters and other charities in your community.
Make your voice heard! Support public policy initiatives that seek to:
Improve access to physical, mental and behavioral health care for low-income American by eliminating barriers such as limitations in health care coverage.
Create a “safety net” for children and families that provides real protection against the harmful effects of economic insecurity.
Increase the minimum wage, affordable housing and job skills training for low-income and homeless Americans.
Intervene in early childhood to support the health and educational development of low -income children.
Provide support for low-income and food insecure children such as head start, the national school lunch program, and Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF).
Increase resources for public education and access to higher education.
Support research on poverty and it’s relationship to health, education, and well-being.
THE CONSEQUENCE OF POVERTY
Regardless of its causes, poverty has devastating consequences for the people who live in it. Much research conducted and /or analyzed by scholars, government agencies, and non profit organizations has documented the effects of poverty (and near poverty) on the lives of the poor (Lindsey, 20009; Moore, et. Al, 20009; Ratcliff & mckernan, 2010; sanders, 2011). Many of these studies focus on childhood poverty, and these studies make it very that childhood poverty has lifelong consequences. In general, poor children are more likely to be poor as adults, more likely to drop out of high school, more likely to become a teenaged parent, and more likely to have employment problems .
Although only 1percent of children who are never poor end up being poor as young adult, 32percent of poor children become poor as young adults (Ratcliff & mckernan,2010).
SOLUTION TO POVERTY
If you believe, like we do at concern, that we can end poverty, then the next question is: How? There’s no one simple process for achieving this goal, but that doesn’t make it impossible. Here are seven solution to poverty that guide our work in 24 countries around the world.
Eliminating poverty through equity: One of the main causes of poverty is inequality. The systemic barriers that lead to groups of people going without representation in their communities leaves them further behind in terms of resources and opportunity. In order for a community, or even a country, to alleviate poverty, all groups and identities must be involved in creating solution.
Reducing poverty with resilience: Poverty happen when a high among of inequality meets a high amount of risk.
To offset this, we need to ensure that the most vulnerable people and communities are able to build resilience. While the meaning of that phrase has changed in recent years, it it means something very concrete in humanitarian aid and development. Resilience for us means working with communities to prepare for disasters – whether man-made or natural – in advance.
Commit to climate change solution and climate justice: Resilience against climate change is especially important and deserves its own mention. According to the World Bank, climate change could force on additional 100 million people into extreme poverty over the next decade without any urgent action taken.
Eradicating poverty through education: According to UNESCO, If all students in low-income countries had just basic reading and writing skills ( nothing else),an estimated 171million people could escape extreme poverty. If all adults completed secondary education, we could cut the global of poverty rate by more than half. Education develops skills and abilities, correct some of the imbalance that come out of marginalisation, and decreases both risk and vulnerability.
Halting poverty by ending hunger (and thirst): Simply eating three meals a day and getting a healthy amount of calories and nutrients can go a long way to breaking the cycle of poverty. When a person doesn’t have enough to eat, they lack the strength and energy needed to work. Contaminated water can lead to debilitating illnesses.
What’s more, improving access to clean water can mean that those who live in rural communities. If you go back to our first point on inequality, you might be able to guess that water is a women’s issue. Current estimates suggest that women and girls collectively spend 200 millions hours everyday walking long distances to fetch water.
Poverty alleviation through peace: Ending all war- while ambitious – means that budgets allocated to cover the cost of conflict can be use to deliver public service. It reduce risk faced by the most vulnerable communities, and ensure that goals towards equality and inclusion can be maintained.
Cash solves poverty: It may seem like the simplest of answers , but cash and microfinance are two of the best solution to poverty.
Sometimes, a small startup grant (even as small as $100) is all it takes to help a family living below the poverty line to launch a new business while keeping on top of their bills and keeping their children feed. The net effects is that they are able to lift themselves out of poverty in a sustainable manner, like stawa James in Malawi.
