Imagine a life where you are not safe living. You do not have the resources you need to survive or to take care of yourself. If you get sick and do not have the medication to treat it, the outcome could be deadly. Millions of children go through this every single day. Not knowing what will happen. If they will get food, have a place to stay, or if they will get sick. A day in the life of a child in poverty effects them in various ways all over the nation, and there are ways that you can help. Child poverty effects the children in both physical and emotional ways.
Stress, for example, impacts the children’s lives in various ways. They could get stress from physical or emotional abuse, chronic hunger or neglect, abuse, mental illness, exposure to violence, family poverty, and more (Children’s Defense Fund). Too much stress on a person can negatively affect them in their later years. The ways that these could effect them includes: social, learning in school, education, unstable employment, adult poverty, criminal justice system, and so on (Children’s Defense Fund).
Children struggle every day because they do not have the proper resources that they need. Protection is very important for a child if they want to be more self-reliant when they are older (Children International). A lot of the time these children do not have a proper place to stay because they either cannot afford it or just simply do not have somewhere to go. Some have to live on just as much as $1. 25 per day (Compassion International). Therefore, these children and families do not get the protection, nutrition, or even medicine they need to live a healthy life.
When they do not get enough food to eat or enough nutrition, it increases the chances of them getting various illnesses. Even the environment around them – contaminated soil and water – exposes them to parasites, diseases, and other serious health problems (Children International). Some of these illnesses could be very serious and life threatening. According to Compassion International, the average life expectancy is at a very young age: ‘In developing countries (where 92 percent of children live) 7 in 100 will not survive beyond age 5. ” Our economy could be part of this problem with child poverty.
Here is an issue: “The United States has the second highest child poverty rate among 35 industrialized countries despite having the largest economy in the world” (Children’s Defense Fund). So, if we have one of the biggest economies in the world, why is child poverty a problem in our area? It is because we try and improve the things that are important to us and our country. For example, how much we spend the military and weapons. Our nation could help child poverty and afford it without a problem by reducing military spending (Children’s Defense Fund).
Child poverty is a worldwide problem that we can help with. The Children’s Defense Fund is helping improve getting jobs – employment – and is making work pay for adults with children. You could help simply by giving a monthly donation to one of these funds or by sponsoring a child in poverty. Through certain changes, poverty would be helped a lot: “Although 4. 3 million children would remain poor despite the policy changes, 93 percent of them would still be helped by one or more of the changes, including 902,000 children who would be lifted above 50 percent of poverty. (Children’s Defense Fund)
Many people tend to help by giving because they believe that people with more should help those who have less (Compassion International). You could help not just one, but multiple children with most of the poverty they are in by just giving a little bit, like monthly. Children get effected by poverty daily all around the world, and giving towards child poverty helps immensely. There are some children who go through the struggles of poverty every single day, and it effects them. Our economy could help more with poverty by making changes in spending.
But, there are still other ways to help, like donating money. Just think, by giving to a cause like this, you could be helping more than just one child in poverty. You could be helping multiple! Over 95 percent of Americans are involved in some sort of charitable giving. Just imagine yourself in their shoes. When we are struggling in life, we like it when others offer to help us. So, let hearing about children in poverty be a challenge. Be a part of the people who give to those in need to make a difference.