Poverty

Poverty is not just a matter of subsistence. Poverty encompasses the absence of opportunity to partake of the very things we take for granted: food, housing, education, training, work opportunities, and most severely, it denies the right to a fruitful life. Poverty drives individuals to extremes just so as to survive.Others lose hope, faith and will.

Despair drives parents to sell children, teenagers sell their bodies for a pittance and societies crumble incrementally under the pressure of living on nothing.

Values and norms lose meaning as the fight to live through hunger and a spot in a drain pipe for sleep out of the rain, fighting over that extra sniff of glue are all that some children learn about being disposable and invisible to the greater world

And what do we lose in the process? Human potential. We lose a child’s discovery of their own mind, a child who through play and exploration would otherwise uncover the wealth of their own talent and what they could possibly contribute to the world

As you brush off a child who begs to wash your car windows as you wait for a red light, or a kid asks to take your shopping trolley, don’t just imagine it being your own child, but see the scientist, the musician, the economist, the community leader, the teacher, whose potential dies in your looking the other way……

The choice is yours… and yours…and yours And mine! We can make poverty history if we want it to be.

There is this idea that poverty is something that born and bred in developing nations: media and commerce have created the illusion of a great divide… and it is often relegated to a developmental one.

Truth is Poverty is spawned in your own home. It starts in the mind. It grows roots in the soil of apathy and it spreads like a cancer among the backstreets of everything you and I pretend not to see. It flourishes among the garbage bags of everything we take for granted: running water, a bed, warmth, family, holidays, birthday wishes, even a simple smile which lets you know someone has SEEN you, acknowledge your existence…

Poverty is not just a matter of money. Poverty is what comes from living beyond the realm of those in need of a helping hand.

Give, so a girl can development her self confidence and become self-reliant.

Give, so a young man need not prostitute himself to foreign holiday makers,

Give, so that a man need not traffic his child for 50dollars.

Give a Damn… it goes farther than just a Dime …. And BE the difference in their lives and your own.

Poverty like illness knows no boundaries. Wealth does not protect one from it and poverty itself does not make you immune to its impact.

With the current tumbling of the world’s financial markets, the loss of billions around the world offers all of us an opportune moment of reflection. The first Wall Street Crash sent the world into an economic nightmare. These days governments rally together at the speed of light in a financial rescue mission….

And it still does not change one aspect of the status quo…

Those stuck in poverty remain stuck in the mud or rambling knee deep in disease infected refuse landfills, which is home to seagulls and homeless children: it feeds a pittance to some anonymous stricken family in the back streets of Bogota, children scramble bottles together for enough small change to kill the cold off their skin for a night.

Walk around your own city without stepping over some homeless anonymous entity and ask yourself how difficult is it to care…

Poverty Day: Take part! Care enough so there does not have to be one next year!

Create opportunities for Trade rather than Aid.

It's in our hands and hearts... if we choose to have a mind to.....

some pictures courtesy of flickr.com

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Comment by GOPI KANTA GHOSH on June 23, 2010 at 4:49pm: We must get rid of poverty by any means...let poverty be history...

Comment by GOPI KANTA GHOSH on January 23, 2010 at 2:19pm: Thanks...it enthuses us to work for poor...

Comment by mak 2 akh on July 4, 2009 at 9:10am: Always Have Hope
Hope Is The Invisible Part Of Ourselves That Can Be The,
Difference Between Getting Somewhere And Getting No
Where
Hope Is The Extra Set Of Muscles That Allows Us To
Carry On Even Though Our Legs Can't Support Us
Any Longer.
Hope Is The Extra Heartbeat That Gives Us Positive
Energy When Our Senses Can't Feel , Hear, Or See Beyond
Negativity.
Hope Is The Nectar That Restores Health When
Our Bodies Feel Old And Broken Down.
The One Thing Everyone Has Is Hope
Hope Keeps Us Sane And Keeps Us Trying
For As Long As We Have Hope,
We'll Always Feel A Candle Burning Within Us
That's Ready To Light The World.
We Increase Our Supply Of Hope Every Time We
Do Something Good Even When We Don't Want To.
Hope Is The Extar Push We Give Ourselves To Quench ,
Rage To Bolster Our Reserves Of Patience And,
To Feel Love When We Find It Difficult To
Feel With Hope In Our Lives All Else Is Possible.
Do I Have Hope This Morning?
Help Me Remain Filled With Hope
About My Life And The Lives Of Those Around Me.

Comment by Nico Zekveld on November 23, 2008 at 1:01pm: I truly believe that when everybody is able to afford food and basic health care,
the need for violence wil not be there as much as there is today,
and that religion is only an argument when people are really suffering.

To realise this we really and completely need to reorganise and coordinate world aid programs and stimulatie micro-credits

Comment by Beatriz Pereira on November 23, 2008 at 1:37am: Hello all,

Apart from the texts of the ’Ten Commandments’, ’The Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ and 'The Desiderata' we should have this text very present for ourselves too.

http://www.carta-responsabilidades-humanas.net/

Please, visit this site, click on the English version, downlaod the Charter of Human Responsibilities, read, reflect and meditate about it and let me know your ideas.

Light, Air and lots of Love to you all,

Beatriz Pereira

Comment by Cal-el on November 18, 2008 at 2:43pm: Great work!

Love, Hope, Peace, & Christ Is With Us All,

Cal-el

Comment by Grace Eagle Reed on November 10, 2008 at 6:55am: As a child I was exposed to poverty due to the unmet needs of my parents. While systems around us ignored the needs we slid deeper and deeper into hunger, cold, pain, degradation, oppression, etc. until my mother, my father, our dog, my sanity, my brothers, were lost and still systems around us did not see, care or do until it was so far along that when there was a foster home it was sheer insanity for all concerned. I survived but am impacted to this day of course. Today I work with homeless, addicted, at-risk youth, on the streets and in juvenile justice. Wake up World we are losing our Children!! And still systems are struggling but still in illusions of how to solve the tremendous loss we as a world are experienceing. But it is and will get better as we follow wonderful reflections of your message and passion. Thanks you for that. Grace of negotiatingshadows.com

Comment by Ravi Pratap Shahi on November 4, 2008 at 1:23pm: Yes we need not gave a damn or give only donations or do charity to remove poverty.
To me a penny earned by dignity is much more than more dollors of charity.
We all must work hard to encourage and find avenues for the poor to earn their food themselves. Help them/ assit them in making themselves self reliant.

Comment by Angela on October 20, 2008 at 8:06am: There is a new company being started by an incredible group of people such as Mark victor Hanson (donates 90% of his income), Micheal Beckwith (founded Agape), Brother isheal TeTe (enlightened) and the list goes on and on!! Their mission statement is to BRING THE WORLD FROM SURVIVAL TO SELF-EMPOWERMENT AND SUSTAINED ABUNDANCE!! Many non-profit agencies are signing up to bring in extra funding for their cause!! It is going to turn the world upside down!! Imagine everyone having their basic needs met and then THRIVING and rebuilding a better world with their own brilliance!! If you sign up please remember me.... I'm number #1133!!
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=meKYQ5KIWGw http://ca.youtube.com/user/HumanityUnites
http://www.hubhub.org

Comment by shaha on October 18, 2008 at 8:40pm: thanks for remainding me.i was talking with my family about proverty day,and how can we help and what can we do?i think we have to stop spending mony for one day and teach our kids how can wesave this mony and give it to cherity,,,,,

Comment by Sharon on October 18, 2008 at 4:50pm: We all want to change the world...Yes

Comment by Filipe Romano on October 18, 2008 at 3:45pm: Bless you.
With love ...
fLIP

Comment by s ace ixik on October 18, 2008 at 2:49pm: the real poverty might be in the minds of bankingbeliefsystemics ...
functionalities where man are attracted to by bonus systems and retirement prospectives ...

a poor man rules the world

what do the people on this world expect from that poor maans successor?

:-{

Comment by Masha Marojevic on October 18, 2008 at 11:28am: Thank You for letting me know about this day.... This has all of my support....

Comment by Lucero Sandoval on October 18, 2008 at 6:42am: Giving makes you feel wonderful, giving makes you feel part of the constant motion of the universe,... I think everyone of us was born with a blessing, and I understand giving as to pass on the blessings you have been touched with, to the ones who need them,... not to keeping any blessing for yourself, so you may also be touched with others blessings. Love and peace in your hearts, homes and nations to you all, Lucero

Comment by Kevin on October 18, 2008 at 5:57am: For people living in poverty , every day is poverty day. May we find a solution to the problem soon.

Comment by Roberto on October 18, 2008 at 4:58am: Gracias...Gracias... Gracias...!!! por esta musica ...hermosa...Roberto

Comment by mcas_iv on October 18, 2008 at 2:28am: outlaw war poverty will be eradicated

Love & peace........
♥ &☮

Brother, Uncle, Dad, Nonno Michael

Comment by Stuart Thomas on October 18, 2008 at 1:34am: Thank you, Ank, for directing me to this important page. Wow, what a strong picture both with its written message and its visual message it depicted about poverty and people's needs. Sincerely, Stuart!