Empty Bowls

Well this is my last post for the semester. I hope anyone that has read this blog has enjoyed it and learned something new. I'm not sure that I'll continue to blog after this semester, but who knows. Poverty will still be a big problem for a while, so I may post every once in a while as a reminder of how terrible poverty has become. I have one last article to share with everyone. This article is about a fundraising event that helps the 9,000 homeless people in the nation's capital. The organization that holds this event is called "So Others Might Eat". They have seen an increase in all of the services they provide because of how the economy has affected people over the last year. Every year the host an "Empty Bowls" event in which people $20 and they are served a dinner of soup and are given a handmade clay bowl. "The events raise thousands of dollars for the organization, with local potters, studios and schools making and donating the bowls, and restaurants and shops donating the food." Making the bowls isn't easy and many people work around the clock to make over 500 bowls. However, the people say they enjoy it because they know that it's going to help out so many people in their city. They say that it even means more during the holiday season because, 'The holidays remind us of giving thanks for what we have, but also the opportunities we have for reaching out to others that don't have.' I just want to remind everyone to keep in mind over the holiday season that they should be thankful for what they have. I remember getting upset a few times during Christmas for not getting the presents I really wanted. Now that I'm older I realize how selfish I was and that I should be grateful that I get anything at all. I ask that everyone take the time over the holidays to give to someone else, whether it's a toy for a toy drive, a monetary donation, or your time at a soup kitchen...something! If you'd like to read the entire article, visit www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/12/15/gif.empty.bowls/index.html

"...in a galaxy far far away"

I've always never understood why the United States spends so much money on Space exploration. I understand that it is a very expensive industry, but is it all necessary when some of that money could go towards eliminating poverty? Well, I've come across an author that believes that the money put toward space exploration is not frivolous when people are spending more money on luxury items. He makes very valid points, but not everyone spends a lot of money on luxury items but instead give large amounts of money and time to help those living in poverty. He discusses how the amount people in the US spend on "pets, toys, gambling, alcohol and tobacco" is about a trillion dollars a year. He argues that this is 63 times the amount that the US has spent on space exploration. He then mentions that "$250 billion are spent annually in the US on the medical treatment of tobacco-and alcohol-related diseases-only sixteen times more than on space exploration." He says that what we spend money on ruins peoples lives (the drugs, alcohol, and gambling) while space exploration has not destroyed lives (he fails to mention the people that have died due to space ships blowing up...). Although I think that space exploration should have less government subsidies, I think the author provides valid points. My favorite quote of the article is, "It is not the exploration spirit that Americans need to give up in order to alleviate poverty. It is the consumerist spirit." To read the entire article, visit www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-04b.html

Peace

I know I've talked a lot about getting involved, but I find this so important that I'm going to stress it again. Right now I'll discuss the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps is an organization that takes volunteers around the world to help on issues such as technology, AIDS, and environmental preservation. They can educate people in different countries about the dangers of poor water sanitation and malnutrition (both causes of poverty, and both of which lead to disease and death if untreated). They may dig water wells or build sanitary bathrooms, and then they teach the local people about how to safely maintain these structures. Volunteers can also teach farmers how to increase their yield while protecting the land, and therefore allowing the farmers to reuse the land for a longer period of time. Nearly half of all volunteers will also support food security through various projects. Such projects include building gardens and educating locals on good nutrition. These are just a few ways in which volunteers help out, there are many other categories that are involved in community development and business. In my previous post I discussed how America is far behind in the goal to help end world poverty, however the peace corps is a way in which America gives back. If you are interested in volunteering for the Peace Corps, which I definitely am, I suggest you do some research and talk to a Peace Corps recruiter. The different programs require specific skills or background knowledge, so it's helpful to talk to a recruiter to determine what program you're qualified for.

Problems of Poverty

This morning I found this poverty website that shows the number of people that die every minute due to a problem caused by poverty. The problems that the website discusses are hunger, diarrhea, AIDS, Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Measles. For hunger alone, the death count per day is 25,000. They discuss programs that help people get food for working or get food while they're at school. Providing food for children that go to school gives them more motivation to get their education which will eventually lead to good jobs and staying out of an impoverished life. Other problems linked to poverty have lower death tolls than hunger, but the lives claimed are still outrageous. Diarrhea, due to unclean water and unsafe sanitation kills around 1.6 million people, while AIDS kills about 240 people every hour, which equals about 5760 people a day. Diarrhea is a simple problem to solve and Oral Rehydration Therapy has greatly reduced the deaths caused by diarrhea in the past few years. Obviously there is no known cure for AIDS, but it can be prevented. However, it is a preventable disease. The number one preventative measure is education! The website also shows how much aid countries gave in 2008. Sweden has gave the most with $0.98 for every $100 the country earned. The United States came in last place with $0.18 for every $100 our country earned. This may make us look like a selfish country because we are one of the richest countries. I understand our lack of giving because there is so much poverty here in America that we still have to take care of. However, the United States did sign an agreement in 2002 saying that we would eventually be giving $0.70 for every $100 our country earns. Since we signed this agreement, we definitely need to follow through. To find out how you can help, or to just explore the website, visit www.poverty.com

The Habit

One topic that I have yet to discuss is how drug use relates to poverty. The other day I watched a special on television about a young woman's struggle with her addiction to heroine...later accompanied by an addiction to cocaine. She lived with her boyfriend who was a drug dealer and had a part time job. This young woman could not keep a job for more than a week because her drug use got in the way. She used about $20 worth of heroine a day while her boyfriend used about $150 a day. This obviously put great financial strain on their relationship. She eventually kicked her out of their apartment because she could not find, or keep a job. Her parents had already put her through 6 detox and rehab programs, so at this point they were unwilling to help her. She lived on the streets and in jails for almost a year because any money she could scrape up was used for her drug addiction. She was in an ugly cycle for years: having nowhere to live and no money because she couldn't get a job, couldn't get a job because the drugs were impairing her mental ability. She eventually got the help she needed and has been sober and gotten her life back on track. I know that this type of life is often seen with drug addicts because their money goes to support their habit. However, the addicts are not always young adults. Sometimes children grow up in households with parents that are addicts, and they must suffer the consequences of the drug abuse. I watched a movie on Lifetime a few years ago in a Health class called "Homeless to Harvard". I don't remember everything about the movie, but basically a girl grew up in a household with parents that were addicted to various substances. She was malnourished and lived in filthy circumstances, eventually becoming homeless. She took her life and changed it around by getting accepted into Harvard. I'm not sure what she does now (this is a true story) but I know that she is well off now. Drug abuse is a very scary thing and it can be so damaging...in many ways, including poverty. However, it's been proven that people can overcome either drug abuse or the effects of drug abuse, and not have to live the rest of their lives in poverty.

Helping Out

Previously in my blog I've discussed ways in which you can help out locally in fighting poverty. However, there are ways in which you can help out on a larger scale, if you're interested. If you're interested in speaking out against poverty, I recommend you look into Stand Against Poverty. They have a website that features stories of people who have been in poverty or fought against it. The website also features videos of people that have spoken up against poverty through the television or even through hosting events. If you're interested, visit the website www.standagainstpoverty.org
If you would like to help individual children in impoverished households, there are many organizations in which you can become involved. There are far too many to list, but The internet is a great way to find the child that you wish to help. There are also ways in which you can help fight hunger, both nationally and internationally. One organization I've recently become interested in is Share our Strength. They help feed the hungry children in America. I found out about them through the food network channel because they sponsor and advertise the "Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale". This is a nationwide bake sale that raised over a million dollars last year, all of which went to fight child hunger. A bake sale is fun, easy, and a great way to spread the word about Share Our Strength. However if baking is not your thing, or you simply are pressed for time, there are ways you can just make a monetary donation. If this is something you're interested in, just visit www.strength.org

No More Peas and Potatoes

The economy world wide has suffered over the past year, and the majority of countries have had to cut back on some spending. Cuba, since 1962, has had a ration book that it provides to needy people in order to help them buy essential food items each month. The government has recently considered doing away with these ration books in order to save money and "encourage more productivity". They have already done away with "nearly free lunches" and some state cafeterias. A list of some of the things these books help provide are rice, chicken, beans, and sugar. In November the government took peas and potatoes off the list in order to save a little more money. The Communist Party in Cuba says that these books were once a necessity to the country, but that over time they have become an impediment. President Castro is about to destroy the lives of many of his citizens. He wants to completely eliminate free services and "unnecessary subsidies". I understand that money has become very tight for all the countries, but it has also become tight for the citizens of those countries. I'm sure the citizens have already had to cut back and with the elimination of these services they will have to cut back even more. Some families rely on these books as their sole source of money for food. Without these books they will either go hungry or have to give up other things in their lives (possibly their home or electricity). Although I don't know the whole situation in Cuba, I think that the government should not try to completely eliminate these services, just cut back on them in some way. The country and its citizens would be better off with this option. If you would like to read this article in its entirety, click on this link. www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/11/30/cuba.ration.book.threat/index.html

Also, here is another article about the ration books that states that the government of Cuba believes that the books hinder equality and growth in the nation. If you would like to read this article, click this link www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42430

Homeless for the Holidays

Ok, i know I've done a lot of posts about homelessness, so this will be one of the last ones...I promise! I read a very short article about the homeless shelters running out of beds very quickly in Santa Cruz California. As the weather turns colder, more homeless people will be looking toward shelters in order to stay out of the cold. Santa Cruz County says that it only has 800 beds for the 2,200 homeless people that will need somewhere to stay. Due to the lack of beds, obviously many people will remain on the streets in the cold. The shelters say they have programs in place that will aid people in finding jobs and permanent places of residence before the weather gets too cold. I'm not sure how cold it gets in Santa Cruz, but I know that I would never be able to tough out many nights, let alone one night, in the cold weather of College Station. I fear that this problem in California is also a rising problem all over the nation. I couldn't imagine having to spend the night out on the streets during the winter in a place such as Boston or New York. It's so good that these shelters are trying to help people find places to live, therefore opening up beds for those who are unable to find other places. Hopefully other shelters around the nation are implementing programs like this. Cold weather is here, these people need a solution now because the weather will only get colder. If you'd like to read the full article, click on this link. www.ksbw.com/news/21827758/detail.html

'The kids were eating ketchup packets'

Share our strength did a recent survey of the United States and discovered that over 17 million children are at risk of going hungry this year. Whitney Elementary, in Las Vegas, Nevada, is being proactive in order to not allow their students to become part of this statistic. Whitney Elementary is in one of the poorest parts of Las Vegas and nearly 75% of the children attending the school have already experienced homelessness. The school offers several aids to these children including lunches for needy kids, and both a food bank and a clothing pantry run by the school itself. These children can take home food and clothes for their whole family. Having both food in their stomachs and warm clothes on their back has led to a difference in the classroom. The principal announced that during her time at the school the students have doubled their scores on standardized testing. The principal owes this success to the services provided her students and the love they see from the people that help provide these services. I'd never heard of anything like this happening at schools, but apparently it's become more popular over the years and especially during this recession. If you'd like to read the entire article (which you should since it touched my heart), then click on the link below. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/25/nevada.homeless.school/index.html

"Good Jobs, Green Jobs"

In October the Jewish Council for Public Affairs teamed up with Catholic Charities and 34 other national religious organizations to bring attention to those in poverty. Obama promised to create over 5 million new green jobs and these organizations wanted to make sure that the impoverished were not overlooked in the training and hiring of these jobs. "The goal of the Oct.14-21 event is to encourage government officials to make sure the poor don't get left behind in the push to create and develop jobs focused on energy efficiency or environmentally friendly practices in sectors energy, construction and manufacturing." Candy Hill, the senior vice president of Catholic Charities said that, "good jobs are a pathway out of poverty." They called for activists nationwide to encourage lawmakers to "back increased funding for education and training related to the jobs." I'm not sure of the outcome of this week long "push" in favor of those living in poverty. However, it seems that people, nationwide, have recognized the enormous poverty problem and are striving to find a solution. If you'd like to read the article in its entirety, go to http://jta.org/news/article/2009/10/13/1008480/jcpa-works-for-good-jobs-green-jobs

'Tis The Season

As everyone knows, the holidays are coming up. This means gifts, spending time with family, and of course gorging on tasty treats. However, many people don't have this luxury. Many of the organizations here on campus are holding canned food drives to donate to the Brazos Valley Food Bank. Both of the organizations I'm in want members to not only donate, but also volunteer at the food bank around this time of the year because that's when places like these see an increase in people needing meals. There's another place in college station that I had discussed in an earlier post that will be helping out this holiday season with people in need: Twin City Missions. Twin City Missions will be serving a thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving for anyone who either doesn't have any food or just doesn't have anywhere to go. There are also many churches in the cities of Bryan/College Station that will be hosting Thanksgiving meals. No matter where you live, it's very important to donate either with food, money, or time to places like these to help those that have nowhere to turn during the holiday season. You never know when you could be in their shoes, and I know that if I was, I would hope that someone would help me out. Also, as it gets closer to Christmas, many of these places will be accepting coat donations as well as toys for kids that normally don't get gifts for Christmas. So my message here is to just be thankful for all that you have and help someone else out, give them a reason to be thankful.

Ungrateful

Today I'm just going to gripe about a situation I was in a few weekends ago. I went to Dallas with some friends of mine one weekend in October. We were having a great time and just driving around Dallas. As we were trying to find the restaurant we had reservations for, we drove under a bridge that had a few homeless people laying underneath it. My heart broke for these people. One of my friends looked away in disgust and said she couldn't believe that people would choose to live like that. I was furious with her because how could she say anything that harsh about people she didn't even know. I asked her how she knew that those people chose to be homeless. She stated that anyone who is homeless chose to be that way because they weren't proactive about maintaining a good lifestyle. Anger started to rise up inside of me because of her ignorance. Yes, some people become impoverished and homeless because they do nothing to fix their problems. However, just like any situation, sometimes things are out of our control. These people may have lost their job, couldn't find another one (which is very likely because I have a friend with a college degree that hasn't been able to find a job in a long time), and they may have lost all their possessions because they couldn't afford them. They might have lost their place of residence because they couldn't afford it with no job, and they may not have had anyone to stay with after losing everything. There are so many factors that she chose to ignore. I can't say this for sure, but she probably doesn't realize how hard her parents work to provide everything for her. I bet the homeless people that we saw would love to live my friend's life. She should be more grateful of what she has, because she never knows when it could all be taken away.

"casualties of the recession"

Today I read an article from Las Vegas, Nevada. The article discussed how the recession has caused many teens to be kicked out of their house. There are homeless shelters to help these teens, but many don't seek these shelters. Many of the girls become desperate and try prostitution or resort to "survival sex". Tim Mullin with the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth said that "many kids, sometimes as young as 13, have similar stories-dad lost his job, the family moved from a house to an apartment and parents tell kids they simply can't afford them." The number of homeless teens has greatly increased in the past 5 years or so and is now around 200,000. This is a tragedy in America. No one should be homeless, especially teenagers. Teens are so young and they shouldn't have to experience this type of life at such a young age. Hopefully being homeless will give them a great desire to better their lives and make something incredible of themselves. What angers me is the fact that I read another article today stating that 3 of Hitler's cars were on sale for $3 million each! If someone can not only afford to pay $3 million for a car, but is willing to pay that much, they should be ashamed at a time like this. I understand having a hobby, but there are so many better uses of this money. When there are less people living on the street or less people in poverty, then spending $3 million on a car might be considered ok (although there are so many other things to donate to like cancer or AIDS research....it never ends). People have such a skewed view on the world especially if they're not the ones suffering...and obviously this makes me ANGRY! Maybe if I hadn't read these two articles on the same day I wouldn't have such a sour attitude...but it's too late now. I know some people have the mindset that those who are homeless chose to be that way because they didn't try hard enough or get another job. I won't go into that argument here, but I will argue that this is not the case for these teens. They didn't choose for their parents to kick them out so I believe it's our responsibility, as a nation, to provide as much aid and help as we can. If you would like to read the article about homeless teens here's the link www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=11395817

Texas A&M gets involved

There are many ways in which A&M helps aid those living in poverty. I'll talk about two of these today. The first is a poverty demonstration hosted by "W-Power In Women". The event is called "60 hours of Homelessness" and the organization will be taking donations (food, clothing, bedding, hygiene products, etc.) and will give these donations to Twin City Mission. I'm not sure exactly what the demonstration will present, but I know that it should be a great opportunity to see how homeless people must live. Another event that A&M hosts is "Shack-A-Thon". This week long even is hosted by Habitat for Humanity. Habitat auctions off plots around Rudder Fountain (not sure where it will be held this year because of the construction) and organizations bid for a plot. The highest bidding organizations build shacks on their plots and members stay in their shacks for a week. It's not exactly a horrible situation to live in because many activities, music, and good food are provided for these students. However, Habitat for Humanity gets all the money that was promised in the bid. Last year, almost $17,000 was raised. Habitat for Humanity always needs volunteers to build homes for the less fortunate (I've helped many times through different organizations and think it is AWESOME, and I hope everyone gets an opportunity to help at some point in their life!), but they also need funds. A&M is very service oriented and I think that we prove this in many different ways.

Violence in the Congo leads to lack of aid

I found an article today on CNN.com and it's main point isn't about poverty, but it does mention it a little. Many humanitarian groups have tried to give aid to people in the Congo who have been attacked or forced out of their homes by the Lord's Resistance Army. Doctors without borders, a humanitarian organization, said "it has more than 150 people working in the Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele districts, where it has provided help to about 16,000 displaced people and treated thousands of patients." Thousands of civilians have been killed, raped, or fled the area. Those that have survived attacks have extremely mutilated or tortured. Over 6,000 houses have been burned down forcing many to seek shelter in host homes, the forest, or "in displacement camps with limited access to food and medicine." What I'm pulling out of this article is that many people have been forced to live in poverty because of this war. These people did not choose this life and they aren't getting as much aid as they need because not enough has materialized. The UN is working on getting more aid to the Congo region and until something is done to control the LRA, many more people will be forced into this situation. Hopefully, the UN will be able to provide enough aid that will allow people to rise up out of this forced poverty. To read the article in its entirety, go to http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/10/14/congo.civilian.attacks/index.html

Death of newborns due to poverty

I was recently on the Fox News website and stumbled across the article, "Report: 2 Million Babies and Mothers Die at Birth Worldwide". At the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics World Congress, a study was launched surveying the death of infants and mothers. Among the researchers were The Gates Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, and Save the Children. The report released on Tuesday verified that "More than 1 million babies are stillborn and another 904,000 die soon after birth." South Asia and Africa lead the death toll by accounting for over 75%, "outnumbering child deaths from malaria and HIV/AIDS worldwide." The report determined that poverty plays a large roll in the death of these children. In countries that are more prosperous, most women give birth in hospitals with doctors or a "skilled attendant" present. However in poorer countries, giving birth in a hospital is a luxury. "Each year 60 million of the world's 136 million births occur outside health facilities while only one out of every five babies born in African hospitals are cared for by skilled staff." The report communicated that the death toll could be greatly decreased with "improvements in basic health care and training for local health care workers to perform emergency Cesarean deliveries and other lifesaving techniques." At the September UN General Assembly, various world leaders committed $5.3 billion for "maternal and child care". Hopefully this large sum of money will provide many more trained physicians in these poorer countries. I think it's great that there are so many world leaders interested in aiding countries that are much less fortunate. I'm not sure if America is one of the countries who has committed money, but I think that if we can spend so much money on a war, we can surely spend money on saving lives. Also, although $5.3 billion sounds like a lot of money, training people in the medical field can be very expensive, so the money may not go as far as you think. I believe that this a great start, but eventually more money will need to be set aside for this cause. If you'd like to read the article in its entirety, go to http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,561020,00.html

4 years of college = 1 degree = 10 years of debt

Many people can misunderstand the meaning of poverty. The typical picture that comes to mind is someone who is homeless or someone who runs out of food before the end of the month. Yes, these are both accurate pictures of poverty, but poverty might be closer to you than you think. Did you ever think that the girl or guy living across the hall from you in your dorm could be considered living in poverty? Many students, once they get to college, are barely able to survive.

Poverty is having very little to no money or insufficient means of support. There are many, including myself, who can't pay for college out-of-pocket, and those people depend on scholarships to cover most of the cost. However, scholarships rarely supply enough funds, and we either turn to taking out loans with ridiculous interest rates or working long hours to pay the rest of the bills. Also, many college students find themselves scraping by each month on what little they do have. We buy the store brand of everything when we grocery shop and buy hundreds of packets of Ramen because it's so dang cheap. This lifestyle is what I call "college poverty".

I'll describe my situation as an example. I had always done really well in school, participated in many clubs, fought for awards, and racked up volunteer hours. I had done all this in hopes of getting awesome scholarships that would pay for the majority of my college. However, the summer before I started college I found myself filling out all kinds of paperwork to get loans because scholarships had fallen short and my parents hadn't saved any money for my college education. I've had to take out loans for the past 3 semesters (less this semester because of more scholarship money!), and I gasp every time I get a statement because of the interest that has accumulated. I worked over the summer and got a position this fall as a Resident Advisor on campus. I've saved the majority of my money from these two jobs, wanting to have money to pay for next semester so I don't have to take out any more loans. My parents are able to send me some money each month for groceries, so I'm not as bad off as some. It's not fun having to save all my money because I, like most girls, love to shop! However, I'd rather not have 10 years after I graduate to pay off $50,000 worth of debt. So until I graduate, I'll be living on PB&J sandwiches and Ramen noodles.

Humble Pie

When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the damage was beyond belief. Everyone knows what happened, so I won't go into detail about that. However, I will relate my experience with some of the Katrina victims. In the summer of 2007, my youth group from church went to New Orleans on a mission trip. By this time, most of the houses had already been gutted, so it was time for renovation. We split up into 2 groups to work on 2 different houses. The owners of the two properties were relatives and had owned a BBQ business before the storm. After Katrina hit, the business was no more. They had put all their money towards trying to get the business up and running again, and they had neglected their homes. Right before they were to reopen their business, a car crashed into the building and everything was destroyed again. Now they had no business, and no money to start repairs to their houses. This is where we stepped in. For a 3 days, we put sheet rock up in their houses. It was tough work, but none of us complained because we knew that we would have a house or a place to stay once we got home. One of the owners had gone to stay with other family after the hurricane and had only recently returned to New Orleans. The other owner, his wife, and two young children returned as soon as it was safe. They, like many others, were given a FEMA trailer to live in. This was inadequate housing for anyone, especially young children. The trailer they received had not only mold but rats. They couldn't even live in this form of temporary housing for several weeks. By the time we came down to help, they were working at steady jobs, but they couldn't afford much in the way of renovation on their skeletal houses. We left at the end of the week having finished the sheet rock in both houses. I'm sure that by now, 2 years later, their houses are finished or nearly finished. However, when we left there were still thousands of houses that hadn't even been touched except for gutting. Hopefully by now that number has decreased.

Had I not gone to New Orleans that summer, I never would have realized how the devastation had affected everyone. I knew that many lives and homes had been destroyed, but it never occurred to me that because of poverty, people weren't able to rebuild their lives. I also now see that I had been taking advantage of what I have. No, I'm not the wealthiest person alive. Heck, I can't even afford college (different blog, different day). However, I have so much more than some of the people that suffered from Katrina. I think that everyone should have a humbling experience like this at least once in their lives. There is still so much to be done in New Orleans and the surrounding areas, so if you're looking for an awesome volunteer opportunity, you should head down there and get involved with one of the many service organizations.

Thanks to "the battalion"!

Today I was reading the battalion (our school newspaper), and I found two very interesting articles relating to my topic of poverty. The first was an article from the Associated Press stating that Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, believes that the recession is on its way out. Although it is almost over, Bernanke says that it will still take several months before the employment rates go up. The next article of interest was about the relocation of Twin City Mission in Bryan. Twin City Mission is a fabulous organization that benefits the Bryan/College Station community. It's main targets are the abused and homeless. I won't focus too much on this article because it doesn't particularly concentrate on what Twin City Mission does. However, the important message from this article is that this organization is finally getting the new building it deserves. It had been based in a very old building, over 100 years old, and it was time for Twin City Mission to have a space built to fit their needs and their desires to expand.

My very first blog post!

My name is Kendall Smith and I'm a sophomore Nutrition major at Texas A&M University. I plan to be a Dietician for children for the first few years after I get my degrees. After a while, I plan on spending time in either India or Africa and assisting with providing nutritious food for those who can't afford it. I hope to work with the impoverished one day, and that's why I've chosen to write about poverty in my blog. However, I intend to focus on poverty in America. I believe that this issue is overlooked to often. The time that it is most noticed by Americans is when tragedy strikes and there are cameras swarming the people in their misery. Sure there are lots of organizations that help the poor, like Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, various food banks and religious associations. However, more money could be spent on helping these people while they're living in poverty and on helping them find their way out of poverty. I'm going to focus on how people are getting help and how we as America, along with out government could do more to help. Also, I'll discuss some of the effects that poverty has on people and how they deal with it. Hope you enjoy my blog!