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What Is Poverty
What Is Poverty?
"Poverty is not an economic problem, but a behavioral one.”
Poverty strips people of their dignity. Force a man to live like an animal and sooner than later, he will begin acting like one. The root cause of poverty is the loss of human dignity, and this is the foundation of the work of Gawad Kalinga.
“Slum behavior breeds slum mentality."
Poverty is a multi-faceted problem. We know that it adversely affects the behavior and mentality of people. Living in a slum environment makes people hungry, sick, unproductive, angry, desperate and hopeless. It keeps people ignorant and is the perfect breeding ground for crime and violence. Poverty strips people of their dignity and allows prejudice to breed as others tend to look down upon the poor with pity, shame or fear.
Gawad Kalinga believes that poverty is not an economic problem but rather, a behavioral one. The root cause of poverty is not a scarcity of resources but a deep and painful lack of caring and sharing in our society. We have focused on ourselves and our loved ones, forgetting that we are all connected to each other. In reality, we are one global family. If we succeed and yet many of our people are suffering, we really have not succeeded at all. By leaving the poor behind and forgetting to be our brother’s keeper, we have not built a better world for the generations after us.
Why Should You Care?
"Poverty is not a lack of resources, but a lack of caring and sharing."
Though you may never have experienced being homeless, hungry or hopeless, global poverty affects us all. Widespread crime and terrorism, poor waste management and environmental degradation are just some of the global issues we all face, and they are all caused by poverty!
Some of us are fortunate enough to have never experienced being homeless, hungry or bereft of opportunities and hope. Even so, global poverty affects us all in many ways:
1. A slum environment breeds fear, mistrust and insecurity for society at large. The desperation brought about by poverty can lead people to resort to criminal activities, putting everyone at risk. Poverty is also one of the driving forces of terrorist activities. Insurgents, rebels and terrorists often rally around this cause, relying on violent and indiscriminate means to bring about the justice they seek for their lack of resources and opportunities;
2. In many developing nations, poverty is one of the main reasons why citizens feel shame and a sense of hopelessness for their country. Unfortunately, widespread apathy and disdain for one’s own country only serves to hasten the decay of its institutions and the country’s downfall;
3. Poverty contributes greatly to environmental degradation by forcing people to abuse natural resources to meet their basic necessities. They have lesser opportunities to learn of how they are contributing to global climate change through poor waste management. Save the poor and you are able to save the environment.
We should care because poverty cuts through cultures, continents and classes to affect you, your family and the people you love. You should care because it is time for us to commit to help our communities, countries, and the single world we all share. You should care because you can, and because there are millions of fathers, mothers and children whose everyday prayers are simply that someone will.
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