“Poverty” is usually mentioned in newspapers, news, books, and stories. However, do you really understand what poverty is and how it affects our life? We are going to find out about this topic in this post.

What Is Poverty?

Based on the Oxford dictionary, “poverty” means “the state of being extremely poor,” “the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount,” and “the renunciation of the right to individual ownership of property as part of a religious vow.”

Not only that, Based on Investopedia, “poverty” is “a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living. It means that the income level from employment is so low that basic human needs can’t be met”.

In reality, “poverty” is also defined as “not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing, and shelter.” Nevertheless, poverty is much worse than any of these definitions, “poverty” is a disease that doctors cannot cure. Everybody who is considered “poor” wants to escape from poverty.

How Does Poverty Affect People’s Lives?

The first aspect of the poverty effect is people’s health. Poverty prevents people from paying for medicine and medical care; many of them cannot go to a hospital and wait for their death. These poor people can also not buy medicines that are usually extremely expensive, especially the ones for severe diseases.

Moreover, poor people cannot pay for health insurance when health insurance is higher than other insurances. People who buy this health insurance are the ones who have a stable job, and their companies will usually pay for this insurance based on the labor contract.

The second aspect of the poverty effect is education. Without money, low-income families cannot afford their children’s education. Many children from these families cannot study at university or even high school when they do not have enough money to pay for the tuition fee. As a result, these kids have to drop out of school even when their academic results are good. However, this phenomenon also creates a vicious cycle: poor kids who do not study high school or university and do not have certification will easily lead to unemployment and poverty. That is the reason why education plays the most important role in helping people escape from poverty.

Third, poor people cannot pay for stable accommodation, so that they have to stay on streets, bridges, or parks. These places are all short-term “houses” where poor people can only stay for one or several nights and have to move to other places. They do not have an official permanent residence recognized by the government, which means that they cannot be considered city citizens.

The last aspect of the poverty effect is that poor people have a higher chance of being victims of violence, sexual and child abuse. The crimes usually choose their victims to be someone whose family does not have enough money and power to fight for them.

For example, many criminals choose poor children to be transported illegally through the international border and sold to foreign families to be the wife or servants. This situation is because these children usually come from low-income families who cannot afford to bring these kids back home.

If these kids come from rich families, their families will use money and power to force the polices to find the children and put the criminals into prison, which low-income families cannot do. That is why crimes often choose poor kids; they will have a lower chance of being committed to prison.

At Project Sprouts, we realize that we can not solve all the problems of poverty in a situation like this. But we can seek to make a difference in the lives of needy children by giving them school supplies and encouraging them to continue their education; we can give them winter coats, boots, and blankets to help them stay warm during the cold winter months.

Project Sprouts would love to have you be a part of our community and help us help worthy children in North Vietnam. We cannot solve all the world’s problems, but we can do our part to help poor kids grow by giving school supplies, winter coats, boots, and other supplies.

You can find out more about Project Sprouts by clicking here or go to our give now page to donate by clicking here. As we are a grassroots organization, all funds go to help those in need.

Related Content

How Does Poverty Affect Health?

Along with the development of technology, the living standards of the human being is now being considered as a priority. People tend to pay more attention to their health than in the past when severe diseases can be cured now, such as cancer and tuberculosis. However, this situation only exists in rich people’s lives, as poor people sometimes do not even have a chance to win over diseases because of poverty. It is undeniable that poverty affects our health.

You can learn more by reading How Does Poverty Affect Health by clicking here.

What Are The Four Contributory Factors To Poverty Locally And Globally?

Poverty is now one of the most serious problems every country faces, even the biggest countries. This issue is caused by a variety of factors, including conflict, inequality, lack of infrastructure. However, what is the four main contributory factors to poverty locally and globally?

The answers are illiteracy, disease, no job opportunities, and overpopulation.

You can learn more by reading What Are The Four Contributory Factors To Poverty Locally And Globally by clicking here.