Escaping the Clutches of Poverty

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The Roma children in Macedonia are dressed in faded clothes that drape across their bony frames. They never have enough to eat. Washing car windows, begging, picking pockets is the rhythm of life for the impoverished. But inside one small school in Skopje, there is a new electric atmosphere of hope. There is a passing out of bread and soup. Delighted squeals of the little children ring out with every new donation of pink shirts or blue jeans. There is a poster in the corner reading, “Education is the Solution!” Gaily the children challenge the volunteers to a dance-off; they are politely declined. Those kids aren’t fazed at all though; they can dance their traditional dances by themselves. Says Vadah Kyalli, a teacher at the school, “There is a welcoming future, if we can just help them.”

“Why in the 21st century do we have people so poor that they cannot even stay alive?” (Jeffery Sachs) Poverty affects over a billion people. But extreme poverty can kill. World Bank has worked on raising awareness for both extreme and regular poverty. World Bank is a bank that receives donations from richer countries, and then loans non-interest financing out to developing countries for development and reconstruction projects. World Bank defines poverty having no access to physical needs- hunger, lack of savings, no education, inadequate shelter, and no close source of drinking water- because of finances, as well as a psychological feeling of helplessness and shame. It causes death and hunger, a cycle that is nearly impossible to break. This is because the destitute often fall into a “poverty trap”, or the theory that poverty is passed from generation because of lack of education and opportunities. But I discovered that poverty is a truly preventable thing. There are a few solutions to huge problems, at an even smaller cost. Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease accepted as preventable, is one of the top killers of the impoverished. But through a 7-dollar bed net, not only can the infection be stopped, but also the carrier mosquitoes killed. For some 1.4 billion people in the world, however, a mere 7 dollars is an unimaginable sum. The current poverty line has been drawn at US $1.25 each day. For these people, it is a struggle to even eat. It is dire to have such a large relative percentage of the world barely able to support their needs, but there is a glimmer of hope. In the 1980’s the population under the poverty line was 1.9 billion people. That means that 500,000,000 people have escaped their vicious poverty trap.


World Bank isn’t the only organization easing poverty. Non-profit organizations such as Red Cross/Crescent/Crystal, UNICEF and Save the Children are there to help. These organizations work not only to comfort those in poverty but also to break the cycle of poverty through education and opportunities. There is still hope, and if the numbers of impoverished keep decreasing the way they have in the past 20 years, there is hope.

credit to www.thelifeyoucansave.com/topic.html