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Poverty
By Shelby
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There are many poor girls and boys
around the world. Children who are poor often suffer from
malnutrition (not getting enough healthy food), physical disabilities,
neglect, abuse, learning problems, poor health care, lack of education,
and other disadvantages.
Part of the reason for poverty is because
poorer parents usually Also, did you know that in many places of the world young girls have a harder life than boys during their early years? That's because some countries favor boys and treat them better than girls. Girls often have a poorer diet and less health care than boys. There are estimates that 60-100 million more women would be alive today if it weren't for discrimination against girls! So how do we break the horrible cycle of poverty? Studies show that children of the poorest families get the best benefits when they receive help early in life. Girls benefit the most from early help, especially in places where discrimination against girls is strong. In Nepal, for example, children from disadvantaged families who had the chance to go to preschool were 20 percent more likely to continue in school than those who did not. And for girls, the effect was even greater – they were 36 percent more likely to go to school. When children get care and
attention at an early age, it helps their brain develop properly, and it
improves their health and behavior throughout life. Improvements in the
health and nutrition of children provide them with increased energy and
greater ability to learn. For example, stopping iodine deficiency and iron
deficiency anemia have huge benefits for a child’s early brain
development. Special
Report In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 72% of the people get less than
Some kids don't go to school even though the government encourages them to. They believe it is better to help their family than to get an education. So the government gives them money. But the money gets delayed so they still don't go to school. Do you have to do a lot of work? The answer is probably no. You may have to clean your room, or take the dog for a walk. Some of you may even baby-sit your little brother or sister, but you don't have to climb up hills or make clothes to sell like they do. You depend on your parents to give you food and shelter. They have to depend on themselves. In some places in Brazil,
young children search through Citations Web sites Scholastic Inc. "Child Labor
Around the World" 1996-2004 <http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/child_labor UNICEF. "Investment in Early Childhood Can Break the Cycle of Poverty" <http://www.unicef.org/earlychildhood/index_investment.html> (December, 2003). Magazines
Images Images of trees and moneybag
from "Microsoft Office Online" <http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?cag=1> |Children's Rights| Child Soldiers| Child Labor| HIV/AIDS | Education| Homeless Children| Refugees| Slavery| Poverty| Hunger| Water| Polio| |
have very little education. Because of that,
their children tend to be less prepared for school, and they often don't
do well. Then their children do poorly in school and the cycle
keeps repeating itself. Today there are about 2.8 billion poor
people who live on less than $2 a day. And if that's not bad enough,
there are another 1.2 billion people living in absolute poverty on less
than $1 a day.
$100
(U.S.) a month. That is less than $1,200 (U.S.) a year! Many children have to do hard work to get just enough money to stay alive. 
dumps with their parents to find things that they can sell. Sometimes if they are very fortunate they
will find little scraps of food. A lot of children get sick from the
gasses they inhale at the dumps.