World Hunger and Poverty

A few different organizations collaborated to research the effect of family poverty on children. The study took an in depth look at 70 low income families from both poor neighborhoods and more affluent ones.

The study took place in England, but I believe it can tell us the general effects of poverty on children everywhere.

Unsurprisingly, the study showed many problems and troubles for families living in poverty, all of which negatively impact children. The study found that children generally felt ashamed and stressed over their poverty. Even young children would hide their own personal needs to avoid stressing their parents further. Many children were bullied by other children in relation to their poverty. Poor parents reported a high level of behavior problems, and poverty had a severely negative effect on the children’s emotional well-being.

The study has shown me some of the ways poverty disrupts children’s development and deprives them of equal opportunity. That results in a poverty trap, in that many of those poor children will end up in poverty as adults due to their poor childhood.

You can discuss this post and the effects of poverty on children in this thread in the World Hunger and Poverty Forums. It’s completely free, and all viewpoints are welcome.

Many parents could provide their children with much better lives. These parents could create an enviornment more conducive to personal success for their child. Many of these parents live in poverty, and thus force their children to grow up in poverty.

Children who grow up in poverty have a much greater chance of ending up in poverty. We call that the poverty trap. These children go to lower quality schools. They lack good role models. They sometimes have to quit school to take care of their poor families. They grow up around violence, drugs, and other horrors. Born and raised somewhere else, these same children would not end up poor.

Poverty-stricken parents who let themselves fall into poverty and do not try to escape poverty have sentenced their children to a life of struggle that will likely include a lifetime of poverty. That seems like a very bad form of child abuse to me.

I wonder if we might want to come up with a way to remove these children from these poor homes. Unfortunately, we do not yet have a place to put these children. The state already has more unadopted children than it can handle.

Whatever we do, we need to find a way to get children away from parents that let themselves fall and remain in poverty.

Please note, I am not talking about parents who live in poverty but try to get out and try to take care of their children. I am talking about the apathetic, lazy, and neglectful parents who choose to not fight their hardest to get out of poverty. For example, consider the unemployed drug-abusing mother who does not even try to get a job, despite the horrors poverty does to her children.

If you have any suggestions on how to solve that problem, please post them in the Hunger and Poverty Forums. It’s completely free, and all viewpoints are welcome.

Thanksgiving has just passed and the December holiday season has already begun. Charities and hunger relief organizations see a massive influx of donations and volunteering during these holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Unfortunately, the rest of the year, these same organizations usually need much more volunteering and donations, especially the volunteering because extra money can be saved.

Whether or not you choose to volunteer or donate during the holidays, I suggest you make a promise to yourself to donate or volunteer another time during the year. Maybe choose a random day way off from the holidays and write it in your calender as a day to volunteer.

At the risk of sounding like a slogan, let me point out that the needy are not just needy during the holidays.

Have you ever been homeless? If so, please tell us about it and consider answering these questions about being homeless for a school project at the following URL:

http://millionsofmouths.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=259

To answer the questions, you will need to register and log in at the forums. It’s completely free, and all viewpoints are welcome. Please do it, as the questions are for a school project. Even if you have not been homeless, feel free to provide your thoughts about the questions.

On Saturday, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus urged political leaders from different countries to compete in the eradication of poverty.

Poverty in Bangladesh has been falling by 2 percent per year thanks to the genius efforts of Yunus and his Grameen Bank. Yunus started the Grameen Bank with the help of self-help groups of poor people. The bank provides microloans to poor people, mainly women, which helps them start or reinvigorate their own small businesses. This enables them permanently escape poverty.

Yunus aims to half poverty in Bangladesh by 2015 and eliminate it by 2030. He says that then he wants to setup a poverty museum so that the younger generation knows what poverty is all about.

Yunus amazes me more and more every time I read or see more about him.

I just read a Haaretz.com article about Jewish poverty in the United States. The article points out that the U.S. has a higher Jewish poverty rate than Israel. That means that a higher percentage of the United States’ Jewish population lives in poverty than Israel’s Jewish population.

This news may shock some people because they think of the United States as the richest country in the world. It shocked me because I know Israel has a very high poverty rate.

Reading the article, I found out that, while Israel has a 24% poverty rate, half of the poor people in Israel are not Jewish.

The UJC estimates that 15 to 20 of Jewish people in the United States live in poverty.

Why do you think so many Jewish people face poverty in the United States? What do you think of the fact that the United States has a higher Jewish poverty rate than Israel? Tell us your answers to those questions and more in this thread at the Hunger and Poverty Forums. It’s completely free, and all viewpoints are welcome.

I just found an article that Kathryn McConnell wrote in October about Crop Hunger Walks in 2007.

Church World Service sponsors these walks. Like most charity walks and marathons, walkers get donations from people for walking. Of course, the walks themselves become major local events, which raises awareness about world hunger and poverty. People who hear about the event or attend may also donate. Additionally, raising awareness will spark action.

According to CWS, over 2,000 of these CROP Hunger Walks will have taken place in 2007. I assume that number does not include other types of charity marathons for world hunger or poverty.

I commend both the people who participate in these types of events as well as those who organize them. I hope they raise a lot of funds for the fight against world hunger. I also hope that they enjoy themselves and feel good.

If you know of any upcoming world hunger walks or marathons, or if you want to organize one, come tell us about it in the Hunger and Poverty Forums. It’s completely free, and all viewpoints are welcome.

Today while at community service, I worked with a group of volunteers from Bank of America. I know they are Bank of America employees because they all wore red “Bank of America” t-shirts. They also told me so.

Perhaps only a few local Bank of America employees organized that volunteering. Of course, having employees volunteer in the community can help a business. Most of all, it can improve the reputation of the business. Beyond that, it can help get publicity and it can increase employee morale.

If you own or manage a business, consider helping your employees organize a volunteer day, where they go volunteer at a local nonprofit.

I found out about a neat website today. FreeRice.com lets you improve your vocabulary and fight world hunger at the same time. The service is both fun and free.

On the website, you try to choose the correct definition for a word. For each word you get correctly, they donate 10 grains of rice to the UN’s World Food Program. It supposedly works by using advertising revenue to fund the donations, but I did not see any ads on the site.

I do not know how well FreeRice.com will work out, but I commend them for their originality. We need this type of originality. The old ways of fighting world hunger and poverty have not worked. World hunger and poverty still plague our world. We need to think of new ideas. Help think up new ideas at the Hunger and Poverty Forums. It’s completely free, and all viewpoints are welcome.

I just read a disheartening article about Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke’s bleak outlook on the American economy. I include an excerpt:

On Thursday, one day after American stock markets plummeted in the face of mounting bank losses, soaring oil prices and record lows for the US dollar, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a gloomy economic forecast in testimony before Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.

Bernanke admitted that the US housing slump and the credit crisis resulting from soaring defaults of subprime mortgages had worsened since credit markets froze last August, and predicted that US economic growth would fall sharply in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the beginning of 2008.

He said the housing crisis would worsen in the coming months, as millions of homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages faced sharply higher interest payments when new rates kicked in, and hinted that the crisis on Wall Street could spiral into a full-blown recession.

[...]

“I’m very concerned that there may be a bigger storm on the horizon. Quite frankly, I think we are at a moment of economic crisis stemming from four key areas: falling housing prices, lack of confidence in credit-worthiness, the weak dollar and high oil prices. Each of these problems alone would be enough of a threat to our economic well-being. But taken together, they are essentially the four horsemen of economic crisis…”

Even during periods of so-called economic progress in the United States, the working class struggles with poverty. Approximately 40% of U.S. people fall into poverty during any 10 year period. Millions of working people live in poverty in the United States. Millions of college graduates live in poverty in the United States. Not only do millions of U.S. children live in poverty, but millions face hunger.

I do not want to even imagine what would happen during a U.S. economic recession!

Worst yet, the Federal Reserve is privately-owned. It works for the interests of the rich. When the economy goes downhill, they will hang the working-class out to dry to protect the status and assets of the rich.

Without reliable credit, the typical American will lose their car, their home, and most of their other possessions. The typical debt-ridden American can afford little without a credit card.

I urge everyone reading this to make smart financial decisions. Use self-control, and consider the long-term effects of your choices. Let’s try to save our money, and try to avoid succumbing to impulsive desires to purchase needless material goods. Also, remember to diversify your savings and investments. In an economic crisis, even seemingly secure investments can go under. Consider the people who lost all the money they had in the bank during the Great Depression when the banks failed.

Discuss the current economic situation, personal budgeting, and related issues in the Hunger and Poverty Forums. We need you to share your knowledge and opinions. It’s completely free, and all viewpoints are welcome.