Poverty in the Community
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Poverty in the Community
Introduction
The issue that needs work in the community I belong to is poverty. Poverty is when a person or a community does not have financial resources to sustain his/her standard of living. In the scenarios where poverty is experienced, the individuals in that community earn low levels of finance that can not sustain their basic living status. Poverty-stricken communities tend to live without some basic needs like housing, food, or clothing. Each country in the universe has its way of determining which communities are poverty-stricken to assist these communities. Statistics show that a population of more than 10% people around the globe live in extreme poverty. The 10% of people living in poverty do not know why they live in poverty and have no means of getting themselves out of poverty. Many people argue that poverty can not be 100% eradicated, but there are many ways in which poverty can be eradicated. According to studies, in the 1990s, many people around the globe were living in extreme poverty, but the percentage has drastically reduced to date. The only way human beings can eradicate poverty is by first knowing the causes of poverty. If the causes of poverty worldwide are not well known, then it is quite hard to get rid of poverty.
Causes of poverty in our community
Some causes of poverty that need to be addressed so that poverty can be eradicated are; inaccessibility to clean water and lack of nutritious food. Suppose clean water can be constantly supplied to every individual in the country and ensure that they have access to nutritious food daily. In that case, poverty levels around the globe can reduce. If individuals do not have constant access to clean water and nutritious food, they will lack the energy required to look for more food and water. Another cause of poverty is the lack of livelihood jobs (Monchuk, 2016). If people do not have a job or a way of making money, they will be deeply affected by poverty. Another cause of poverty is continued conflicts among the community members. If a community is affected by conflicts, things like infrastructure and domestic animals may be destroyed, forcing some community members to flee away to seek more peaceful places. When these community members flee away, they leave behind their assets and begin a new life surrounded by poverty. The fact that poverty has affected a significant percentage of the community members should be a great concern for everyone (including the rich). People should come up with ways of eradicating or minimizing poverty among the community members. Below are some of how people can actualize to minimize poverty among themselves.
How community members can take part in fighting poverty
The most crucial method in which a community can fight poverty is by encouraging the members affected by poverty to participate in activities that can help them get out of poverty. For Instance, the poverty-affected people can be encouraged to discuss with their leaders to come up with ways of minimizing poverty. Besides, the community can establish organized groups within the community to assist groups of people affected by poverty rather than assisting a selected number of individuals (Monchuk, 2016). Handling a group of people affected by poverty can be more effective than handling individuals in a community affected by poverty. This is because handling a group of people affected by poverty facilitates a more collective and organized process of empowering individuals via an organization. This means that people affected by poverty in a community should be handled as a whole rather than handling individuals, a process that can be unproductive.
Another way individuals in a community can fight poverty is by encouraging the people affected by poverty to identify the main issues that facilitate them being poor. Poverty eradication would be easier if the people affected by poverty can pinpoint the issues that affect them and facilitate them being poor. When people identify the things that facilitate them being poor, they gain a lot of self-confidence and work together to solve these issues, facilitating them being poor. Additionally, for people to fight poverty among themselves, they have to invest a lot in quality childcare and early education (Bank, 2019). Education is among the major aspects which help in eradicating poverty. A community with a bigger percentage of educated individuals has very low levels of poverty; this is because education helps people secure good-paying jobs. When many people in a community have good-paying jobs, the community can barely experience poverty because the people with good-paying jobs tend to help others financially or give them ideas of making money.
People need to end mass incarceration for them to eradicate poverty in the community. When mass incarceration happens in a society, families’ breadwinners (the men of the family) are targeted. When men are incarcerated, they leave behind their children and mothers who can hardly cater to their children’s basic needs and basic needs, leaving these families poor. Suppose the heads of the state can consider incarceration and stop victimizing families’ heads for no good reasons. In that case, communities can be financially stable, and poverty levels can go down. Another way a community can help eradicate poverty amongst its people is by providing tax-free goods in the market. It is believed that most of the people who survive on a low-income salary tend to pay extra money for everything that they purchase (Bank, 2019). When higher amounts of tax are imposed on foodstuffs, it becomes difficult for poor people to purchase the foodstuffs, making them drown into more poverty. Some basic things like foodstuffs, water among others, should have very little tax imposed on them so that the poor people can afford them.
Conclusion
For a community to eradicate poverty amongst its people, poverty people have to listen first. Their views are taken into consideration because these people know the cause of their poverty what things can be done to help them get out the poverty. When these people air their views on how they can be helped out of poverty, community members can help them actualize these ideas, which can help them get out of poverty by using locally available resources or giving them new ideas of how they can get out of the poverty situations.
References
Bank, W. (2019). Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Fall 2019: Migration and Brain Drain. World Bank Publications.
Monchuk, V. (2016). Reducing Poverty and Investing in People: The New Role of Safety Nets in Africa. World Bank Publications.