Child Poverty

by Celine Elveus (BPRW)

There used to be a captivating commercial in Haiti about child poverty. The commercial illustrated a busy street crammed with what looked like millions of people walking. There were so many of them packed on that street, they looked like a trail of ants on a sugary treat. There were all sorts of people rushing, talking and minding their own business. At one corner of the street was a small child looking extremely frail. No one on that busy street even looked twice at her. At the end of the commercial, the slogan appeared on the screen as well as a child’s voice saying: “apa nou bliye m sa n ap fè avè m?” This means, “You forgot about me. What are you going to do with me?” That child wanted food to feed her weak bones. She wanted a family, but most importantly she wanted a home. The heart-wrenching news is that this is not just a commercial but a reality. That child in the commercial depicts what so many children are facing across the globe. There are children all over the world hunting for their next meal by sifting through a pile of garbage.

There is nothing customary or acceptable about an adult struggling for basic means of survival let alone a child being deprived of a real childhood. That’s precisely what poverty does to young children. It rips them of basic needs such as food, drinking water, shelter, good health, education and many other vital survival equipment that some of us take for granted. Maybe we are unaware of how many of those children are out there. According to National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), nearly 13 million children in America live below the poverty level and there are even more children living in considerably worse conditions all across the globe, particularly in third world countries.

Oftentimes when those commercials appear on television, we say a lot of sympathetic things but we tend to do nothing. At times, it seems like there are too many children to help. But if each and every one of us that is able to lend a helping hand by sponsoring a child and donating non-perishable food and clothes to shelters did so, there would not be so many children going to bed on an empty stomach or living in horrible conditions. There would be less malnourished young souls. The next time a commercial about those hungry yet beautiful souls appears, do not turn your back so their hungry eyes don’t haunt you and do not switch the channel. Try instead to save one of them. Making a difference in one small child’s life is a huge start to changing the world in which we live.