The poverty in South Africa is blamed on the political regime of apartheid,
which ended in 1994. For the majority of South Afircans, the abolition of
apartheid has not materially affected their poverty status. This is not in any
way a defence of apartheid, whcih should never have happened!
The present governement has introduced child grants and many families
depend on this money as income. The social support structure in South Africa is
hopelessly inadequate.
The effect of poverty on children is devastating. Their future is extremely
bleak and the paychological impact of prolonged poverty is as devastating as the
physical - the cycle of poverty is perpetuatued!
Margaret is very interested in our discussion on poverty and has even asked me to send her some notes on our discussions. I am almost ashamed to tell her what poverty is like in my community. According to her explanation, the children in South Africa would love to live in what we consider poverty in my community. My contact in Ethiopia did respond to me but she gave me titles of two books about children in Ethiopia. I tried to look them up on Amazon hoping to read some excerpts. The books were on the website but there was no access to read pages from the books. I did read the descriptions and they were about studies done on children in Ethiopia and how learning about their culture helped them to improve. I guess this drives the point that you cannot fix something without understanding the challenges surrounding an issue. For instance, I'm sure we would not know where to begin to improve poverty in these third world countries. We would first have to understand the government as well as the lack of resources.
From the readings I have done on Africa, it has always had harsh environmental conditions. As we look at the dry and barren land covers, with many of the children being underweight and orphaned, we have no reason to complain. I wish there was a way we could improve poverty in these third world countries. Something needs to be done!!
ReplyDeleteAfrica has always been a place of interest for me with regards to missionary work because of their well known state of significant poverty. It's great you were able to establish contact with Margaret who is able to give such a great depiction of the poverty life in Africa. I appreciate your remark stating, "I am almost ashamed to tell her what poverty is like in my community. According to her explanation, the children in South Africa would love to live in what we consider poverty in my community." I agree, hearing stories of situations that are so much more harsh that what we are familiar with really puts things into perspective of how how bad situations are elsewhere, but also certainly does not devalue the issue of poverty as we know it. What ways does Margaret support issues of poverty in her community? Is this something she is actively advocating for? I am curious to see what actions are being taken, if any at all, to overcome this issue.
ReplyDeleteShawna
it is awesome that you were able to find two people to correspond with. It is very sad to read about South Africa and so many people still living in poverty. The government should be working for the better of the people and not against. It is unfortunate that so many children have to suffer because of things they have absolutely no control over. Things like food and shelter should never be a problem no matter where you live.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw that you were able to contact someone from Africa, I was very hesitent. I have heard that poverty in Africa is really bad. My church has pastors that help a community there. It is very sad. But as Margaret said, so many people that live in poverty in the US are living in the lap of luxury compared to those in Africa.
ReplyDelete