Some time ago I attended Spring Harvest with St Mikes Youth, we decided that we'd do the student stream after the main meeting. We talked about various topics and even got involved in a voxpop moment or two, but there was one statistic that stuck in my mind.
Here it is
1 in 3 children lives in poverty in the UK today.
Spring Harvest was 18 months ago and this hasn't changed. I've had a lot of conversations with various people who refuse to believe that anyone in this country can be poor or in poverty, but the simple fact of the matter is that it is all relative. You would be stupid to deny that there are people who do not have enough money to live on.
So this has been bugging me ever since I heard all about it and in a couple of weekends theres a march happening in London. Sadly, I can't go, but I will be showing my support by writing to my MP. Have a look at http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/ and let me know what you think, or just take action, after all things like this don't get solved by people just taking about it!
'Let the children come to me' Jesus said and I think that is just as important today as it always has been...after all it's in the news today...Gordon Brown is repeating what Tony started...They do need to actually put it all in to practice though, the Lib Dems are talking about the educational needs of those who are living in deprived rural areas (the gist of the article in Children and Young People Now was that poverty doesn't just happen in urban areas), so it's on everyones minds...we just need to make sure it doesn't go away, that we keep reminding people about it and not ignoring it, making sure that we find a way of helping these families out.
It's bugged me so much that when I was first looking for a job, I started to look into working with people who are in poverty. I didn't really find anything, I think its something that's just not in the social conciousness, because we believe we're in a stable, wealthy country. Sadly there is a line, its happening all around the world, equality does not exist anywhere...there are poor and rich, no matter where you come from.
Don't ignore it...
3 comments:
Ok, I've joined the facebook group, and visited the web site, but how exactly do we determine whether a child is classed as 'in poverty'?
As an example, people in 'fuel poverty' are those who spend more than 10% of their income on fuel for heating, lighting etc.
http://www.cpag.org.uk/publications/extracts/PtheFsumm07.pdf
Child Poverty Action group 2007 summary report for you...'What is poverty?' is a debate in itself, but I guess if you're below the line that the government sets, then you're in poverty...
I don't accept random government criteria - what is the true international standard?
Also, why isn't this on the front page.
And - you still haven't given me any data.
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