Occupations such as fishing can be passed down from generation to generation if education is not an option.

There is no single cause of poverty. Poverty is too complex an issue to be the result of just one problem. There are, however, many interrelated factors that contribute to poverty in developing nations.

• Education: Lack of education keeps children from obtaining jobs that would lift them and their families out of poverty. Often, children are kept from school because they are needed at home to support their family with additional income.



• Health: Poor health decreases the amount of work impoverished individuals can do, lowering their income and driving them deeper into poverty.

  Slideshow:
  Fishing Slideshow: See what fishing is like in poor, rural areas of Southeast Asia.
  
  Note: Requires Flash Player.
  
  

  The onset of disease, such as HIV/AIDS or malaria, can result in death (which can cut off a major source of income for a family), or high medical costs that many impoverished families cannot afford.



• Economics: The poor often have very limited economic choices – they are often prevented from receiving loans and other financial benefits. This makes it hard for them to establish businesses, increase their income, and break out of poverty.



• Government: The governments of many developing countries are often dysfunctional, unstable, and corrupt. Lack of government infrastructure (public sanitation, schools, social welfare, etc.) can be crippling for the poor.

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Increasingly, people talk about the ‘cycle of poverty’ that keeps the poor locked into poverty. Basically, because of the poverty that the poor are already experiencing, they and their children are not able to break out. Imagine that you are a six-year-old child in an impoverished family in India. Your parents might want to send you to school, but are unable to because they need you to work so your family can be supported. Later on in life, when you try and get a job, you will be limited to low-paying occupations because of your lack of education. You will be forced into poverty once more.

Parents can be forced to take their children out of school to help with farming.

Lack of education does not have to be the only factor in the cycle of poverty – all the causes discussed in the Introduction can be factored in. It is easy to see how poor individuals find it difficult – even impossible – to end their own poverty.

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By this time, you should have a good understanding of poverty in general. The rest of the site specifically focuses on SOLUTIONS to poverty. The solutions are divided into different sections, depending on what kind of solution they are. For example, training teachers as a way to fight poverty would fall under the Education Solutions section.

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Breaking the vicious cycle of poverty through microcredit. 2002.

Wikipedia: Cycle of Poverty. 2006.

Wikipedia: Poverty. 2006.

World Bank: Overview: Understanding Poverty

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Copyright © 2006 ThinkQuest Team 00282