Getting to Know Your International Contacts
Unfortunately, I was not successful with the podcast. So, I utilized the alternative option to
review the UNICEF (2012) website. Upon Reviewing the UNICEF (2012) website and
reading about poverty in various countries, I selected to review Central
African Republic and its impact on poverty and the issues related to poverty in
detail. From reviewing the information
on Central African Republic, three insights or ideas that I gained are that;First,
poverty has an impact on the use of improved sanitation facilities, Secondly, poverty
affects child labor tremendously, and Lastly, poverty has an impact on birth
registration. UNICEF (2012) states, in the Central African Republic, only 33%
of the population have improved sanitation facilities. In the Central African
Republic, the percentage of children aged 5 to 14 years of aged involved in
child labor activities is 28.5%. UNICEF(2012) records suggests, that in the
Central African Republic, Child labor of a child is constituted as any child
between the ages of 5 to 11 years of age that during a period of a week (based
on the week preceding the survey), did at least one hour of economic activity
or at least 28 hours of domestic work. UNICEF (2012) suggests, in the Central
African Republic, only 61% of births are registered.
For a long time, I defined poverty as a condition that
affected only homeless people. Therefore, when I would hear the term poverty, I
would envision an individual that was homeless and digging through a
trashcan in search of food. For a long time, I often only thought of the
financial situation or impact that the economy has on an
individual/family. However, poverty is
more than a financial situation. ASPE
(2010) suggests, that poverty is also a subjective experience,
dependent on specific social contexts and comparisons. ASPE (2010), states
that, “Here in the United States, poverty is measured using an official poverty
line”. ASPE (2010), also states, “In
2010, the official poverty line for a family of four was an annual income of
$22,050; for a family of two, it was $14,570, and for individuals it was
$10,830”.
Reference:
Neketha,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. It is interesting to compare the statistics on Africa's poverty and the United States. The numbers quoted for the poverty line in the US are the numbers that would be quoted for a middle class family in most African countries. Whenever I go to Kenya I am always surprised at the food prices displayed. The prices for some goods are the same as the prices in the US but the income is much lower. Everything gets to be so expensive that it is out of reach for the poor families. A lot of poverty is due to the mismanagement of funds by the government leaders, and corruption.