Living on the Street

By Megan Jablonka
that are suffering from poverty cant get
out due to their parents. Having
children suffer because nobody can help
their parents is not fair.

Causes of
Poverty
Children should not be cruelly
condemned to a life without hope,
without good educationwe must do
better for them (Progress on Poverty).
As great as this statement may seem it
is not truly what goes on in America.
Poverty is a major issue that affects
millions of people. Not only do the years
increase but women and children in
poverty increase as well. These women
and children can not do anything about
their life and what they have gotten into
so why dont we come together and try
to solve this problem.

Victims of
Poverty
There are many children who
experience a life they didnt want to be
involved in. Children accounted for one
in three of the 1.2 billion people living in
extreme poverty around the world
(Progress on poverty). Surprisingly the
statistics that have been released in the
past year conclude that almost all the
victims of poverty are kids. Children

Poverty is a major issue that

happens nationwide and is caused by
many different situations such as
individual responsibility, government
policy, and business practices(Global
Poverty). Foreign aid can also
contribute to poverty, primarily in that the
majority of such aid never actually
reaches the people who need it
most(Global Poverty). Some of the
people that are in poverty cant get out.
This is because of the process called
the cycle. If your mother was in poverty
than you are most likely to be in poverty.
My mothers poverty, my mothers
mothers poverty and my poverty, an
unending chain(Gray 9). The cycle is
never ending because of the lessons
people learn from their relatives while
they were in poverty.

Effects of
Poverty
Even though the causes of
poverty may seem bad, the effects of
poverty are much worse. Poverty

prevents Americans from buying healthy

food according to Sy Mukherjee. These
days it seems like the healthier the food,
the more expensive it is. How does the
government expect the poor to buy
nutritious food? Therefore, being in
poverty leads to another big issue,
which is obesity. Another factor that
affects poverty would be how families
get water to drink. We still have almost
1.4 million children living in households,
that rely on rivers or streams as their
main source of drinking water (Protect
Our Children From Poverty). When
people do not have enough money to
buy things like water they use the
resources around them. If the water
happens to be contaminated then the
person who drank that water now has
the bacteria in their system, which can
lead to further problems.

States with
the Highest
Rates
When people think of California
they think about Hollywood and famous
actors and actresses. Although these
might be the first thoughts that pop into
your mind, California is also known for
being one of two states with the highest
poverty rates. The two states with the
highest poverty rates are Texas and
California according to Chuck Devore.

Rising Rates
In this day and age technology
keeps advancing and so is poverty.
Forty-six million people in 2010 were in

poverty the highest since 1983

according to Poverty Rates on the rise.
These numbers are insane! Poverty
rates keep increasing faster than the
years can go by. Census Bureau today
showed the proportion of people living in
poverty climbed to 15.1 % last year from
14.3% in 2009 (Poverty rose to a 17
year high in 2010, Income fell). For sure
the year with the highest poverty rates
was 2010.

Helping to
End Poverty
There are many organizations in
the US that are trying to help the people
in poverty. One of the many
organizations is Heifer International.
How Heifer International works is by
bringing food to large areas of poverty.
They also try to bring new ideas such as
building schools according to The Heifer
mission. How can you help to end world
poverty? Go to heifer.org to learn more
about this fantastic organization or to
donate money to help end poverty.
You have the power to change
everything (Heifer). Anybody can
change poverty! It only takes one
person to change millions of kids,
women and mens futures from dark to
bright.

Works Cited
Devore, Chuck. Texas Outdoes Calif. Even On Poverty Front. Investors
Business Daily 1 Dec. 2014: A11. Student Resources in Context. Web. 23
Jan. 2015
Global Poverty. Gale Student Resources in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2012.
Student Resources in Context. Web. 24 Jan. 2015.
MUKHERJEE; SY. Four Ways That Poverty Hurts Americans LongTerm Health. ThinkProgress RSS. N.p., 30 July 2013. Web. 28 Jan.
2015.
Progress on poverty, but 1.2 billion still live on the extremes. America 28
Oct. 2013: 8+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.
Protect Our Children From Poverty- Minister Xingwana [press release].
Africa News Service 24 Oct. 2011. Student Resources in Context. Web.
28 Jan. 2015.
Video: U.S. Poverty Rose to 17- Year High in 2010, Income Fell.
Bloomberg Television Video Content 13 Sept. 2011. Student Resources
in Context. Web. 24 Jan. 2015.
Gray-Garcia, Lisa. Criminal of Poverty: Growing up Homeless in America.
San Francisco: City Lights, 2006. Print.
World Hunger and Poverty- Heifer Mission| Heifer International | Charity
Ending Hunger And Poverty. World Hunger and Poverty Heifer Mission
| Heifer International | Charity Ending Hunger And Poverty. Heifer
International, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.

Pictures/Graphs
http://galleryhip.com/child-poverty-in-america-2014.html

https://subrosa09.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/fools-that-store-bail-outs-in-barns/
http://www.heifer.org