Blog Action Day - Local Poverty

Today is Blog Action Day and the theme is poverty, a topic that is often avoided because of the immensity of it.

What comes to mind when someone tells you to think about poverty?

For most people it is the extreme poverty. The one billion people in the world who may not survive the day and every minute of everyday is a constant struggle.

In Southeast Asia I saw that kind of poverty where families lived in tin roofed and cardboard complexes that stretched for miles on undesirable real estate. In small villages, way off the beaten track, in Uganda, I saw some of that – small, dusty children, with big eyes and bigger bellies. Non governmental organizations have done a very good job keeping that kind of poverty on television and on donation request forms. And don’t get me wrong it is something that needs to end.

But, there is a more local poverty, the type most people step over on street corners in North American cities, the type some people yell “get a job” at and it is more prevalent then most people want to know.

Why don’t we want to know? Because we don’t like to think our system has failed someone. We like to think that everyone has the same opportunities and some people have wasted them. To a certain extent I even felt like that – the starving people overseas are MORE in need, and MORE deserving of help.

Then I moved from Uganda to Prince Albert and realized a lot more people overseas have more then we think and lot more people in our cities and towns have a lot less.

In Saskatchewan one in 10 households will have trouble securing enough food. In the Aboriginal community these numbers go up to one in three – if there are children in the homes the numbers go up again to nearly 44 per cent.

Can you imagine? Fourty-four per cent of families in Aboriginal communities in Saskatchewan are not sure where their next meal is coming from? Probably not everyday, but even having to make the decision paying rent or feeding your family once is too often.

It’s almost funny how easy it is for some people to explain why people in our communities don’t need help.

If I say one in three households are food insecure, someone will tell me “well their bands should be caring for them,” or something far more nasty but to that effect.

If I say “what about homeless people on the downtown eastside?” someone will tell me “they are all drug dealers or prostitutes,” like it means they don’t deserve help.

I don’t understand it. If someone needs help, they need help – it doesn’t matter if you are black, white, or Aboriginal.

If we can send money away – why can’t we support some organizations here at home? I’m not saying to stop donating overseas. But, can you imagine how the local food bank or women’s shelter feels when they see the community pull together to send money or items to save starving orphans in Mali when they cannot give a starving child here something to eat.

My solution spread the wealth. If you only have enough money to donate to one organization keep doing it – but drop by the food back with an extra package of spagetti, leave used clothing at the Salvation Army or one of the collection boxes found in most cities.

Don’t have anything to give? Never under estimate the value of volunteering. Many “soup kitchens,” food banks and housing project operate on volunteers.

And while you are serving soup you might meet some of the people you are helping. Suddenly, the person you stepped over isn’t so scary and their look of gratitude might make you stand up and tell someone else to do something.

Because, as clichéd as it sounds, we can only end poverty (at home and abroad) if we work together.