I am yet to receive any confirmation mails from my international contacts. But I hope to exchange information with Janella, a classmate as we continue with this course. She lives at Michigan and works in Early Head Start.
A study on poverty in China(the most populous Nation in the world) reveals that even the poor are interested in giving education to their children even if not the best standard.This could also account for the reason why poverty is reducing in recent times. Rural poverty decreased from about 30.7% to about 3.7% and just about 4 - 8% live in poverty in Urban areas in 2001; and in general, 5% of the whole population live below the poverty line. Like in most countries, the major reason for poverty in China is unemployment.
Also they acknowledge the fact that investing in early childhood education is a way of reducing poverty.
Interestingly, the government allocates a piece of land to every rural family, relief some families of paying agricultural taxes when farm produce is poor and then provide food, clothing and shelter for the very poor families. But the government needs to consider children from the rural areas in terms of education as poor children in rural areas account for the majority part of poor children as a whole in China. Unfortunately, poor children in rural areas are prevented from going to school due to some extra cost fees placed on education, hence in order to cope about 70% of them cut down on their food intake, borrow from friends and relatives, rather than wait solely on the government.
It is obvious to me now that poverty is a global issue. Though it is conspicuous in most African and Asian countries, I am beginning to see that poverty exists in every community and the role of the government is crucial in eradicating poverty.
References
http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=country
http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php/action=documentfeed/doctype=pdf/id=83/
Hello I have enjoyed reading your blog and finding out more information about poverty in other parts of the world. It is astonishing that government forces do not find a way to counteract the hardships families face and improve the standard of life. If money used to fund wars could be used to fight poverty, poverty would cease to exist. I also sent you updated information about Michigan to your email. Looking forward to the experience. Janella
ReplyDeleteI have traveled to many countries throughout the world in which I have witnessed poverty. One thing that I found to be truly interesting was that, when I was in Egypt, the Egyptians did not believe me that there was poverty in America. They were certain that all Americans are rich and live in nice houses and own cars. It was nearly impossible to convince my Egyptian friends that 40 million people live in poverty each day in our country. They saw poverty as an issue that affects Asia and Africa, but not the Western world. It is interesting the perceptions we can develop.
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