Everyone has seen those charity commercials. You know the ones with the destitute child staring blankly into the camera while a foreigner stands next to them telling you how difficult and unhappy their lives are and stating how much happier this child will be if you donate 20 US dollars to help provide them with shelter, food and clean drinking water. This is the face of poverty. Broken helpless people. Or is it?
Poverty is a worldwide concern. You can observe poverty in some of the richest nations in the world and in some of the poorest alike. Poverty can be easily masked, though. There are a large number of Americans living in poverty and many children are going to sleep with empty stomachs but you may not always be able to identify those living with such circumstances. Wherever you go in the world, poverty is looming nearby, whether you are aware of it or not. That's perhaps the most starkly different aspect of being in a westernized country and a non westernized country. Poverty is not stowed away behind homeless shelters or in the dining areas of soup kitchens. Those living in impoverished conditions in third world countries are not hidden. India is one of those places where the poorest and the richest are neighbors. Views from extravagant lofts showcase those in abject situations. Luxury flats peering down on slum cities, built from scrap metal and found materials. It's symbolic, the poorest are always at the bottom, looking up and wondering what it's like to be way up there at the top. My first month in India was spent with a fairly middle class family who hosted volunteers to work in their school and orphanage. The orphanage and school were located in a slum town. All of the children attending were coming from poverty unimaginable to foreigners. I was taken deep into the village with my host father to see how these sweet radiant children were living. The buildings were made of brick, the houses being big enough for one bed and a bit of walking room. The bathrooms, situated at the front of the houses, were empty little rooms with a hole leading to the outside of the house. This means that there is no running water or proper waste storage. Human waste from every home is being sloshed through a hole in the wall, directly into the street where children and women are roaming, barefoot. It was hard to see. They had no running water, no electricity and things were seemingly grim. I was caught up in my mind thinking of how hard their lives must be and then I realized what was happening around me. The women were washing clothes in a group, talking loudly and laughing. The children were running all over, playing and giggling. The men were smoking cigarettes and there was some apparent banter within the circle. I was so humbled by how much joy there was. These people were deeply happy, in a way that even I didn't know. So although they may not have all of their basic needs met, they are far happier than pretty much everyone I know. We have all of our necessities taken care of and then some. What is it we are missing that they have managed to find? This is where things get complex in my mind. Everyone deserves a roof over their heads, warmth in the cold months, nourishing food, clean drinking water and access to free education and healthcare. These are basic human rights. Yet their rights are being forgotten. People from other countries are bringing them aid but whatever is being brought is not replenished. So once their supply runs out they then return back to the position they were in before. They become reliant on others to bring things in for them and in turn they are kept in poverty. The government is not interested in saving the millions in poor circumstances. It's every man for himself. So how do we put an end to poverty? How do we stop a problem that has existed since the beginning of time? Education. Teaching the children to read and write. Teaching the community how to purify water, how to grow food sustainably, how to manage their waste so that they live healthier lives. As the saying goes, you can bring a man a fish and he eats for one day. You can teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. The truth is, though, they are far wealthier than the richest people in the world.
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