My triangle of thoughts in regards to today’s reading and viewing surround the facts that children across the world all manage to maintain positive attitudes and brighter expectations of a better future no matter their upbringing or poverty level. And that even with that point the sad thing that many of them don’t understand is that the poverty that they are born into generally means the life that they will live in their own adult lives. I was amazed at the attitude and responsibility level of the children studied in Through a Child's Eyes: Views of Global Poverty; although they were all only 9 years old it was not unusual to see them keep after their younger siblings or take to getting the groceries from the market. Even in America although children are not left unattended in the same fashion they still understand the responsibility of taking care of themselves and the stresses that their parents face in caring for them. And even with all of this responsibility on them they still seem so optimistic, not in an outlandish way of being rich but of being happy with a home or as Sangeeta from Pune, India said “to have an apartment like the one my parents built”.
What we did see in all of the cases in today’s literature was that poverty was something that was passed down from generation to generation. That although all of these children maintain optimism for a good future what they consider good is still within the lives of poverty. In the video Through a Child’s Eyes: Views of Global Poverty 10 year old Shadi said that one of the things that he wanted in his future was less flies. Here you see that the goal is not to get outside of the poverty line or to be rich or famous it is simply to do well enough that the flies won’t bother him as much as they do in the dusty alleys he calls home.
The last point in my triangle regarding children, poverty, education and crime is that all of these are generally linked together. Unfortunately for all of the children that we saw and read about these factors are all common place to them, since they live in poverty their education will not be as high; more than likely they will take on labor positions as the generations before them have. With this generally comes a higher rate of crime and exposure to crime, robbery and sexual assault or things that are sad but rampant in all countries in areas where poverty is high.
The point that squared with me, or that in this case I appreciated the most was to see places highlight the organizations and areas that are working with povertous children in order to at least keep them safe and help them in making wiser decisions. Something that touched base with me was the little girl from New York in our film, she was wrapped around what was good and not good, right and not right. Which at first glance one could confuse as something that she is learning because a religious group is helping fund her and her mother’s well being; but I looked at it as retraining the brain, which in her case was probably something that could really change her life. Having come from a background of drug and alcohol abuse her risk of becoming an addict is much higher, but with the help of a religious group not only is her family learning how to survive and live but she is also learning that if she makes wiser decisions her children’s lives might not be as difficult.
An interesting point made in our reading Orphans in Africa was that correlating the benefits one receives between being an orphan and not is more relative to being poor or not. Some chose to argue that in some areas being an orphan meant that you were less likely to get an education or advance in life, and while yes it is true for some areas it is not the case for the majority. Even in areas of Uganda when a child is left orphaned by their parents they come to stay within their community being cared for by many as one family. This means that with the death of parents what is left for all children is less because the families work as community. So all children within the community orphan or not receive the same benefits; this is an awesome call and most countries are not that just; but the majority has places that operate for the sole purpose of educating and aiding orphans. These are amazing organizations and groups and to me is a point worth circling.
Case, A., Paxson, C., & Ableidinger, J. (2004). Orphans in africa: Parental death, poverty, and school enrollment. Demography, 41(3), 483-508.
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