The Reality of Poverty Around You

Did you brush your teeth this morning, wishing that you didn’t have to get up and go to school?

Did you take a look at your beat-up MP3 and blush, complaining to your parents that you need an iPod to “fit in?”

Sadly enough, these kinds of things happen very often while many teens the same age as you don’t have the privilege of going to school, don’t have homes to live in, and barely have enough food to keep them alive. So what is poverty? Poverty means that a person cannot provide the basic necessities for either themselves or their family.

According to a 2008 study by the Edmonton Social Planning Council, one in every 10 children in Alberta lives below the poverty line. That’s about 77,595 children in Alberta. Meanwhile, a 2007 article written by the Political and Social Affairs Division of the Government of Canada states that on November 24, 1989, the House of Commons unanimously resolved to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000. However, no long-term action plan was developed to meet this goal and monitor its progress, and the year 2000 has long since passed.

Despite all this bad news about child poverty in Canada, the average teen can still make a difference in terms of donating money, or even volunteering with certain organizations. There are many organizations dedicated to helping stop local, national and even international poverty, such as World Vision, Mustard Seed Foundation and Make Poverty History. World Vision uses the money that is donated to buy animals, clothes and education for needy children all over the world. The Mustard Seed addresses poverty through the building of healthy communities in Edmonton and Calgary. Meanwhile, Make Poverty History is a national campaign to end poverty – so the more people that join, the more powerful the campaign is to spread awareness.

Spreading awareness is actually a huge area where teens can be very influential in the fight against poverty. One of the reasons that poverty is such a stubborn issue to tackle is because not many people either know or care about the conditions in which other people live. Teens often see other teens on a regular basis, so spreading awareness is quite possibly the easiest thing you can do to help out.

So don’t forget: you too can make a difference by joining a non-profit organization, donating money or spreading awareness on the topic of poverty in an effort to help better the lives of many children and teens around you.