Poverty affects children in a variety of ways. Three insights I have learned or am more aware of now after researching poverty include:

·        Poverty affects children’s development. Children that face malnutrition may never recover from the damages of inadequate nutrition. Last year in our community a school employee and his wife were arrested for starving their adopted children.  The oldest son was 13 when Child Protective Services removed him from the home. The boy weighed 49 pounds and stood 4’4” tall. This a case of abuse not poverty however the reports on this case explained that the lack of nutrition has affected the child’s cognitive ability and he is permanently stunted because of malnutrition. 

·        I also learned that there is a lot more research to be done on how children can be trapped in poverty and how to help them escape. “Poverty can be passed on from generation to generation affecting long-term health, wellbeing and productivity of families and of society as a whole,” (Child Poverty and Research Center, 2012). There is an article on this website titled Promoting Disadvantaged Young People’s Employment-What Can Be Done that is worth checking out.

·        I also found out there are a lot of agencies working in collaboration to help curve poverty and the effects on children and their families. CHIP has set goals on changing policies to eliminate childhood poverty, spreading the news on childhood poverty and working with others to develop strategies to lesson poverty as well as work internationally to reduce childhood poverty.

http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/

Josie Zbaeren