A Brief Note On The United Nations Children 's Fund

Children who are poor are most often born into poverty. Poverty is the lack of necessary needs in order to survive. Whether this be shelter, food, or water, most comes from a lack of cash flow through the family. Other situations can be divorces, children joining or being taken by rebel forces, parents passing away, or even situations of abuse. Statistics say that, “Around 55% of people live below the poverty line, living on less than a dollar each day. Areas with the greatest number of poor are particularly in the east of the country, where conflict continues”. With the majority of poor people living in the east, this also means that healthcare is worse there. When living conditions are not sanitary and there malnutrition, this causes people to become more susceptible to menial diseases. With all these factors taken into account, “The capital, Kinshasa, contains around 20-25,000 children who sleep rough and survive by begging”. Without means to help support these starving children, the country will continue to stay in this unproductive state; there needs to be a prevention of these preventable diseases killing the

If a family loses a family member due to inadequate health care, an unsafe abortion, it can affect the family’s financial stability if she was a breadwinner, if there is no one else to care for children, and/or if the family is burdened with health care or funeral costs (Harman, 2016, p.526). If the lack of family planning options, such as birth control, results in more children than a family can support, not only do their finances suffer, but their overall socio-economic status, including nutrition, education, and health declines (Guttmacher, 2012).

The Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research conducted a study using data gathered from 46 developing countries to examine child poverty. The results found over a third of children lived in absolute poverty or in homes of more than five people.134 million 7-18 year olds lack basic education and over 375 million drink unsafe water. Civil war added to all of this makes for a hard existence  (Newbold et al.,

Picture This: coming home to place where there aren’t any lights, water and probably no meal for the day. According to Human Services in Contemporary America poverty is the main reason why many babies don’t make it to see adulthood and why clean water and sanitation are not provided. It is the underlying cause of reduced life expectancy, and disability. Poverty is a major contributor to malnutrition, stress, divorces of a family and abuse (Schmolling).

The Industrialization of America brought about improved transportation, manufacturing systems, and new job opportunities. The prospect of fortune led to an influx of immigrants, which in 1907 alone saw 1.2 million immigrants enter the United States and settle along the major cities on the East Coast (Chiodo & Meliza, 2014). The growing number of immigrants coming to America led to over crowdedness, and poor living conditions. The unhygienic living conditions and meager health care led to early deaths of working parents, leaving a growing number of orphaned or abandoned children behind.

Growing up in a little city in the southern part of Nigeria filled with mosquitoes and irregular supply of electricity is an experience that has deeply shaped me. I was the last child from a family of eight, more like ten because of my two older cousins that lived with us for many years. In Nigeria, it is not uncommon to care for relatives even with a low income. My parents, Helen and Matthew, were hardworking and determined people. My dad ran a small sawmill business and my mom hawked produce to put food on our table. Unlike Canada, there is no welfare system put in place to help poor families. This lack of aid means that people like my parents were not well supported by the government, but by each other. One of the most beautiful things in

The year was 1999 when we moved to Colorado from New Mexico. I was just a year old. My father recalls searching restlessly day and night to help support me and my mother. Coming to a new state was difficult; moving from basement to basement was their only option. Fortunately, a little after our arrival, my father found a job working construction and we were able to get a small apartment.Although small, it was still fulfilling in every way. Money was scarce at the time, as well as food. As he talks, he mentions a weekend night when he and I were spending some time together in the living room. I was a year old, and I was hungry. I decided to go to the kitchen and find some milk. When I made it to the kitchen, I opened the fridge. My father says,

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is an international organization present in 190 countries (Unicef, n.d.). It is an agency focused on the area of maternal and child health. Recently, the organization is providing fresh water and food for mothers and children, education for mothers and girls, and immunization programs for children (Unicef, n.d.). The advantages for this program are the benefits to the education and health of the women and children, but the disadvantages are ability to retrieve funds all the time, and providing care to everyone. They have to have a focused topic, like they do, in order to start to care for the population. There are many issues in the third world countries that go beyond the abilities of one organization,

When I came inside his old house it seemed as if nobody had lived there for years, although it had only been about two months now. This is what we called home for the night, but in the back of my mind I believed there was something still hiding in this house. As I woke up the next morning I was relieved with a fresh glass of water, Father had found some in the back closet in an old milk jug. Water had never tasted so good when I had that first sip in two weeks. This would later be one of my last for about 3 weeks. Our journey has now came to a total of 112 days, so about 3 ½ months, and today was the best day of my life. While scavenging in the fields for water, my Father tripped on a wood marker, this wood marker led us to a bunker stocked with food. Regenerated and stuffed with canned green beans, I felt better than ever before with my father, he seemed to know really care for me giving me almost all the food in the bunker. A shower has never been more refreshing. Both Father and I agreed. Now is the day that we storm of in hopes of more water and fresh food, leaving our now barren food shelter behind. Father is now really starting to scare me with his poor health, I believe it came from all the additives in the canned foods but Father

As our world settles for more poverty more and more complications are created, starting with the increasing death rate. As families get poor, it is difficult to sustain a livable life while taking care of others. They begin to die without adequate water and food, while bringing

Poverty can lead to serious effects. Children who grow up in poverty are likely to have frequent health problems than the children who grow in better financial circumstances. For example, infants who are born into poverty have a low birth weight, and they grow up with mental or physical disabilities. Not only are they sick, but they are most likely to die before their first birthday. Children who are raised in poverty might miss school often because of their illnesses, and they have a much higher accident rate than the other children. Nearly a billion of the world’s population can’t read nor write. Poor families experience stress much more than a normal family does. They are more likely to be exposed to negative events such as illness, job loss, death of a family member, and depression. Homelessness is another effect of poverty. Homeless children are less likely to receive proper nutrition, protection and they experience more health problems. Around 1.4 million children die each year from lack of access to safe and clean water and proper nutrition. Homeless women experience a high rate of low birth weight infants as well as miscarriages. Families who do not have homes receive much more stress than other families. They also have disruption in school, work, friendships, and family relationships. There are other effects of poverty such as drug abuse and addiction, child and woman abuse, debts pressure, and increase in crimes.

This is a story about a young fellow named Jack, who wasn’t a lot older than you when this happened. Now Jack lived with his mother and daddy on a small farm, but they were in bad shape. The crops didn’t make good that year, Jack’s daddy was having to go further and further to find work and do a little hunting so they’d have something to eat. Jack decided that he was big enough to go out and get a job so he could help buy food for his family. So Jack’s mother packed him some food to take, (Jack was especially fond of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches), gave him a big hug and sent him out the door with prayers for his safety. Jack traveled down the road for almost a week, his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were all gone, and he was really getting hungry when he saw a great big farm off to the side of the road. He thought surely they’d give him something to eat, even if it was just some apples or carrots. So Jack went up to the house and knocked on the door. A really kind looking man came to the door and saw how pitifully hungry Jack looked and took him inside for lunch. Now the farmer was a really nice man, but his wife was mean. She didn’t like sharing their food with anyone and she really didn’t like Jack. She was sure he’d steal something so she decided she had to get rid of him. But the farmer offered Jack a job on the farm, if he’d take care of the animals. So Jack went out and fed the pigs, and the cows, and the chickens and worked as

Socio-economic factors are widely acknowledged as important determinants of poverty. If an individual experiences adverse living conditions in childhood, majority of them will have inadequate income and result in low socio-economic status as adults (Carroll et al, 2011). Children born in poor households have difficulty in accessing the basic needs (e.g. food, clothing, and good living environment) and this can affect their learning ability at school, unable to focus. In other words, they have a higher chance of dropping out of school or lower education attainment, unable to provide appropriate qualifications when they move onto adulthood, seeking for job opportunities. These children are finding day-to-day life tough, they are living in cold, damp houses, do not have warm or rain-proof clothing, their shoes are worn, and many days they go hungry (Children's Commissioner, 2012). Often this has taken place over a long period of time, impacting on their development, behaviour and physical health furthermore limiting their potential as they grow into adults.

This is a story about a young fellow named Jack, who wasn’t a lot older than you when this happened. Now Jack lived with his mother and daddy on a small farm, but they were in bad shape. The crops didn’t make good that year, Jack’s daddy was having to go further and further to find work and do a little hunting so they’d have something to eat. Jack decided that he was big enough to go out and get a job so he could help buy food for his family. So Jack’s mother packed him some food to take, (Jack was especially fond of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches), gave him a big hug and sent him out the door with prayers for his safety. Jack traveled down the road for almost a week, his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were all gone, and he was really getting hungry when he saw a great big farm off to the side of the road. He thought surely they’d give him something to eat, even if it was just some apples or carrots. So Jack went up to the house and knocked on the door. A really kind looking man came to the door and saw how pitifully hungry Jack looked and took him inside for lunch. Now the farmer was a really nice man, but his wife was mean. She didn’t like sharing their food with anyone and she really didn’t like Jack. She was sure he’d steal something so she decided she had to get rid of him. But the farmer offered Jack a job on the farm, if he’d take care of the animals. So Jack went out and fed the pigs, and the cows, and the chickens and worked as hard as he could. But

Poverty is a social problem that affects everyone on an economic, political and social level. The problem of human suffering is one that we must combat strategically on many levels. According to the United Nations, “in 2015 more than one billion people around the world live in a state of poverty, lacking the basic goods food, clothing, and shelter that humans need to survive” (“Poverty”). There are a great number of areas that keep individuals poor, such as lack of resources, inadequate income, lack of education, language barriers and the high cost of child care. Being able to work and provide basic necessities is our basic human right and we should not be deprived of these basic human rights that individuals need in order to live satisfying lives. The government has the responsibility of helping individuals in need with the economic assistance to feed, clothe, house, educate, provide health care and decent wages for every individual. They should ensure that individuals have access to resources that will help them build a better future. There are several ways that we can work together to strategically find solutions to end inequality among the poor individuals in our society.