Poverty

Podcast

I listened to several of the podcasts on the World d Forum Foundation Radio website.  The one most closely related to the topic of poverty was the podcast featuring Delfena Mitchell who founded Liberty Foundation an organization that provides  residential care and education for abused and abandoned children in Belize, Central America.  This organization was started in 2005 and in 2006 began providing a high quality preschool for the children in the community.  There are a number of reasons why Belize was chosen.  The website states that 39% of children in Belize live below the poverty line,

abuse and neglect are widespread and education for poor children is of poor quality and only 45% of children attend secondary school (http://www.libertyfoundation.org.uk).  In the podcast, Delfena Mitchell states that Belize has the highest incidence of abuse and neglect in Central America and goes on to describes the abuse and neglect that many children in Belize experience.  Belize has the highest incidence of abuse and neglect in Central America.  She shares the story of one child who had been a victim of abuse who had not talked for a year before coming to Liberty House.  Ms. Mitchell talks about the importance of allowing children time to heal when they first arrive. For this child, horseback riding, medication and gardening were factors that led to him eventually beginning to talk again.  I did try to contact Ms. Mitchell by email, but I did not get a response. 

References

Episode 3: Delfena Mitchell [Audio podcast]. (n.d.). Retrieved from World Forum Radio:  http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/

Liberty Foundation (n. d.). Our story. Retrieved from http://www.libertyfoundation.org.uk

Poverty in China

For the second part of this week’s assignment, I visited the Poverty Research and Policy Centre website (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/).

The country that I chose to learn more about was China.  According to the Childhood Poverty and Research Centre, China has successfully reduced the poverty rate but that disparities between the eastern part and western part of the country remain.  Because the poverty line in China is low compared to international standards, it is assumed that there are many people living near the poverty line who are not accounted for in the statistics.  China’s unemployment rate is 14.3 %.  A Minimum Living Standards system is in place to provide assistance to poor families, but it currently only is available to those in urban areas.   While child poverty in China has decreased and the quality of life improved, recent studies have shown that health and education reforms have made it more difficult for poor families to access these resources. For example, one study in Beijing, China's richest city, “found that 75 per cent of poor families could not afford all children's education costs such as tuition fees and stationery costs, while 50 per cent of poor families in Shanghai had no medical insurance because they could not afford it” ( para   5).   

Three insights that I gained from exploring information about China on this website related to poverty are

1.  Factors related to poverty in China are similar as those in the United States such as education level, unemployment /inability to find a job, and low income. 

2.  There are many factors that influence the kinds and the extent of poverty in a country.  In China, the reasons for urban poverty can be traced to social reforms which eliminated many state jobs and the migration of people from rural areas to urban areas.  

3.  The education of their children is very important to poor families in China, despite the challenges associated with paying for it.  In the study by Wei, Benyon, & Mahe, 43% of poor parents in China reported that paying for children’s schooling was the  greatest challenge they faced and that this cost was the primary expense for most poor families.  The education system in China also has a negative impact on the education of poor children.  China has 2 types of schools-key and regular.  Key schools have better exam results, are more selective and are expensive than regular school which means that most poor children must attend regular schools Families who have moved from the rural areas to urban areas must also pay additional costs for their children to attend school, so children are often left behind to attend the rural schools. 

References

Childhood Poverty and Research Centre. (n.d.). Country overview: China.  Retrieved from

http://www.childhoodpoverty.org

Wei, Benyon, & Mahe. (2005). Poverty among children in urban China: a survey of poverty-affected families in three cities.  CHIP Report 14.  Retrieved from http://www.childhoodpoverty.org