Defining Child Poverty

This post is meant to accompany slide #3 entitled "Defining Child Poverty" from my presentation that I gave to the volunteers helping me with my project. The presentation can be found in a post below. I will update this blog with detailed information about the others slides as well.

A major part of my project is to inform the community about the purposes behind my project and to educate people about the issues. Teaching you all about child poverty helps bring awareness to the problem and eventually to help find a permanent solution.

This information is taken from UNICEF, which now stands for the United Nations Children’s Fund. Please visit http://www.unicef.org/ for more information.

UNICEF works to ensure the survival, protection and development of children and advocating a high priority for them in the allocation of resources at all times. It continues to give relief and rehabilitation assistance in emergencies.

For children, poverty is experienced as an environment that is damaging to their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual development. It is expanded beyond the traditional definition of child poverty, such as with low household income or low levels of consumption. There are two different types of poverty.

1. Material poverty

For example: starting the day without a nutritious meal or engaging in hazardous labour

 Result: hinders emotional capacity as well as bodily growth.

2. Harmful environment poverty

For example: living in a place that provides little stimulation or emotional support to children 

Result: can remove many of the positive effects of growing up in a materially rich household

By discriminating against their participation in society and inhibiting their potential, poverty is a measure not only of children’s suffering but also of their disempowerment.