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Poverty
"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
well-being of oneself and one's family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care,
education..."
(Article 25, United Nations Declaration of Human Rights: 1948).
DESCRIBING POVERTY
 Relative Poverty
-When people have a home and enough money for food but do not have enough for
extras like videos, dishwashers or cars we say they are poor in comparison with wealthy
people, but it is unlikely that anyone will starve.
Absolute Poverty
- When people's lives are threatened because they cannot afford food, shelter and
medicine they are living in absolute poverty.
Whether an individual is rich or poor depends mainly on where he or she is born. More
than one billion people in the developing world (almost one quarter of the world's total
population) exist in absolute poverty. In the coming decade 850 million people will be
born in the developing world. Many of them will spend their lives struggling to meet their
basic needs.
WHY SO MANY PEOPLE ARE POOR
 LAND. People
are made poor when their land is taken from them. They lose their homes and the means to
grow their own food. In Brazil ten million families have had their land confiscated.
LABOUR.
People are made poor when they are exploited for cheap labour. In the Philippines sugar
plantation workers earn an average of 50 pence a day.
EDUCATION.
People are made poor when they have little or no access to education. In Bangladesh 57% of
men and 88% of women have had no education (UNICEF 1990).
TRADE. People
are made poor when the terms of trade are unfairly stacked against them. In 1965, about 20
tonnes of raw sugar sold on the world market bought one tractor. In 1979 about 60 tonnes
of sugar were needed and in 1990 about 85 tonnes were required.
DEBT. People
are made poor when their countries have to pay back huge debts to richer countries and
repayments are made at the expense of the poor. Brazil owes more than US $116 billion to
first world countries. With Brazil's interest payments alone Britain could build two
Channel tunnels a year.
WAR. People
are made poor when civil wars and military dictatorships undermine civil and political
stability.
In Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Sudan, Mozambique, where wars have raged for decades, food is
very expensive and basic services such as education and health care have been completely
disrupted or neglected.
[a diagram containing the following text: The countries of the South have 75% of the
world's people, but only...
15% of the world's energy consumption
17% of the world's GNP
30% of the world's food grains.
18% of the world's export earnings
11% of world education spending
9% of the world's health expenditure
5% of world science and technology
8% of world industry
OUR DIVIDED WORLD]
[a hand drawn graphic with text:
POOR GET POORER...The burden of debt
Too often help goes to those with bigger farms and the small farmers are ignored. Many
get into debt trying to survive and then they lose their land. They join the long lines of
landless who swell the cities looking in vain for a job...Theirs is the worst hunger of
all.
"My crops need water. I need a loan to dig a well" "No. You have not enough
land to qualify for a loan" Local moneylender - "There will be 35% interest each
year. It's a good crop but..." Then one year... "The price of my crop has
dropped I have doctor's bills. I can't pay the interest this year." "I'll take
half your land instead" "I need help!" "You have not enough
land."]
IN THE WORLD TODAY...
 | 1.2 billion people live in absolute poverty
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| 100 million are homeless
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| 14 million go hungry every day
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| 14 million children under 5 will die this year
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| 900 million are without education
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(Human Development Report: 1990)
WHAT CAFOD IS DOING
CAFOD supports projects among the poorest of poor people and seeks to tackle the
causes of their poverty, hunger, sickness, homelessness and oppression.
The main types of project funded are:
| food production
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| leadership and skills
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| water development
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| training
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| preventative health care
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| adult education and literacy programmes
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THINGS TO DO
1. Make a table showing how
you spend your money in one month. Show how much you spend on basic needs, luxuries and
entertainment. Get your friends to do the same and compare results.
2. Write to CAP (Church
Action on Poverty) for information on their campaign against poverty in Britain. Find out
if you can help in any way.
3. Write to CAFOD for other
fact sheets: Water, Food, Education, Health, Debt, Refugees, Trade etc. A complete set of
20 factsheets, including the above, is available for �1.00 + 20p p&p.
USEFUL RESOURCES
The CAFOD Schools Pack "We ask why they are hungry", about issues of poverty
at home and in the South, is available from CAFOD priced �5.50.
USEFUL ADDRESSES
Church Action on Poverty, Central Building, Oldham Street, Manchester M1 1JT
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Factsheets Index,
