Knowing that today is Blog Action Day, I have tried to come up with a topic to post about. I know that this years topic is Poverty, but I struggled when I tried to narrow down what to actually post about.
There is poverty everywhere. Africa is rife with poverty, but all you really have to do to see an example of impoverished people is look out your back door. Living in the US and Canada for my entire life, it is hard to imagine that there are people living in poverty when you see so many examples of the polar opposite (think Bill Gates!).
I have always wanted to go to a third world country to experience what it would be like being around abject poverty, in hopes that it would change my outlook on life. But, in reality, I can go downtown, or to the local homeless shelter or soup kitchen and see people who are unable to afford food for themselves and/or their families, and that just breaks my heart. My family was never rich as I was growing up, but my brother, sister, and myself never knew that we could end up on the streets at the drop of a hat. Luckily, we never came close to living in poverty, but I knew people who did.
According to wikipedia, poverty is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.
There are too many causes of poverty to even begin to name, but with the economy in it’s current state, it is now on a lot more people’s minds, and is a cause for concern for people who had never worried about it before.
My main goal behind posting this is to remind anyone who happens to stumble across this post to remember that as bad as the pictures you see of children in Africa, there is poverty everywhere. If you want to do something about fighting poverty, start at home, then watch the ripple effect…
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