In Part 4 of this series of articles it was emphasised that anti-poverty intervention is most successful if done during childhood, that is, before the psychological condition called the “poverty mindset” becomes fixed in the mind of the child. It was noted that a key tool in the fight against the cycle of poverty is education. In this fifth article in this series, the matter of childhood intervention will be further examined, and, other areas of attention – in addition to education – will be identified and explored.
According to a report by World Vision – a Canada based child-advocacy organisation – children suffer, more than any other demographic, from the effects of the poverty cycle. The report states the following:
“Children are most affected by the cycle of poverty. Children are dependent on their guardians and therefore cannot pull themselves out of poverty because of their young age and lack of resources.
“Children living in poverty are more likely to experience: Illness due to unsafe water and poor sanitation malnutrition, lack of access to education, and inadequate health care”
The report notes that all facets of poverty must be addressed at the childhood level if communities want to break out of the cycle.
Anti-poverty agencies, financial and political institutions, and other groups and individuals recognise the importance of children, and childhood intervention.
The World Bank Organization, in a 2017, pre-pandemic press release stated that, “We are living in the middle of a human capital crisis and need to do everything we can to create a world where children everywhere have the opportunity to become whatever they want. The potential of hundreds of millions of people is being wasted, as their chances remain too closely tied to the previous generation. We have to invest in young children so they are hardwired to succeed, encourage and meet the aspirations of young people, and act at all levels – especially locally – to ensure that tomorrow’s generation can thrive regardless of where they are born.”
Evidently, poverty has increased as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, so, the situation has gotten worse since that World Bank press release was issued.
The World Bank, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations, Plan International – a child-advocacy organisation – as well as other entities list five key interventions intended to interrupt the cycle of poverty.
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Quality education
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Access to nutrition and healthcare
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Water and sanitation
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Economic empowerment
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Participation in community development
While the 5 key interventions apply to all members of impoverished families and communities, it is noteworthy that all of them are included in reports prepared by child-advocacy groups.
What are some follow-up interventions?
Breaking a cycle of poverty is a challenging task. The effort consists mainly of external intervention and help, as well as victims freeing themselves from the poverty mindset. The effort must be focused on childhood interruption of the cycle. Also, there must be follow-up actions.
World Vision recommends that extended interventions may include: access to microfinance, market development, education about saving money, and education about business practices.
According to the organisation, those and other longer term actions will empower individuals to, perhaps, establish a successful business, start farming, or engage in some other profitable activity. Moreover, the person will feel like part of the community, and be more inclined to move away from a negative mindset, and move towards having an optimistic view of the future. Such empowerment may provide a former victim with the motivation to break out of the poverty cycle for good.
Conclusion.
This brings us to the end of this series of articles. Village Voice News (VVN) hopes that readers have learned something from it.
VVN urges that people who recognise that the matters discussed in this series apply to them, reach out for assistance. As has been stated in these articles, it is understood that people caught in a poverty cycle almost always need help. People who need help should ask for it.
