Recent News: Poverty.

Around the world, there are millions and millions people living without access even to the most basic necessities such as clean water, food and shelter. Poverty leads to the deprivation of many of the necessities that will affect a person’s quality of life. The picture below shows an example of how people are living in poverty.

http://www.wallpaper7.org/cele/cele6o.php?news=effects-of-poverty-in-the-philippines

Therefore, many actions are taken by various organizations and countries to eradicate poverty. I would like to pinpoint one of the goals stated in the Millenium Development Goals by UNICEF. The goal that I would like to highlight is the goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger which can be found here: http://www.unicef.org/mdg/poverty.html.

The article state that reducing poverty should and must begin with children. I would like to highlight a paragraph from the article.

“One than 1 billion children are severely deprived of at least one of the essential goods and services they require to survive, grow and develop. Some regions of the world have more dire situations than others, but even within one country there can be broad disparities – between city and rural children, for example, or between boys and girls. An influx or tourism in one area may improve a country’s poverty statistics overall, while the majority remains poor and disenfranchised.”

Poverty will deprive children from experiencing a good childhood which will greatly affect their livelihood and future. Poverty takes away their rights to basic education, food, shelter and healthcare that will hinder them from achieving their full potential.

In short, UNICEF has done a lot in its efforts to eradicate poverty according to the article. To solve the lack of health care that children receive, UNICEF purchases and distributes vaccines to children in developing countries. More schools are also being built to cater to them. However, more can still be done to eradicate poverty. There are still many people living in poverty and not all of them had received help in improving their conditions.

This is where youths can help out. We are the agents of change. We should reach out and lend a helping hand to those who are in need of help.

I will now end with a quote by the President of the United States, Barack Obama:

"...the United States is leading an effort to reach out to people around the world who are suffering, to provide them immediate assistance and to extend support for food security that will help them lift themselves out of poverty. All of us must join together in this effort, not just because it is right, but because by providing assistance to those countries most in need, we will provide new markets, we will drive the growth of the future that lifts all of us up..."

— President Barack Obama.

-Jia Yiing-