Stressors and Development

The story I am sharing is two-fold. It highlights the issue of poverty and also disaster. The school district I worked for in Michigan was the biggest and poorest in the Western Michigan area. Most of the kids at the school I worked for were living in poverty. They didn't have adequate coats, shoes or food. It was nearly impossible to reach parents' because phones had been shut off or they didn't own one. The children were constantly moving to different apartments because they got evicted and couldn't pay.  Many families lived with relatives to save money because of this many of the children slept on the floor, shared a bed with siblings or cousins or didn't have a bed at all. Over 90% of our school recieved free lunch because of their families income.  My classroom was no exception. All of my 6 students recieved a free lunch.

Antwaine came into my classroom half way through my first year teaching. He was a big, bright eyed child who had a love for music and drawing. He instantly made a place in my heart and we became close. I remember the first time I met him.  He came with him mom and baby sister to sign up for school. I showed him the classroom and where he would be sitting. They were in a hurry though because they had to catch the bus back home. See, Antwaine's family didn't have a car and it was an hour bus ride to get to school. His mom had taken two young kids on the bus to get there. I was in shock! A few months later, Antwaine had missed a couple days of school. I called to see if everything was okay and couldn't get through. The secretary had been trying as well. She finally got a hold of someone in his family and had learned that there had been a fire at Antwaine's apartment. Everyone was okay but they had lost everything. They were staying with some friends out of the distirct but because they didn't have a car Antwaine couldn't get to school.  As a school, we donated and pooled resources to help his family as much as we could. He was able to come back to school a couple weeks later but he was more reserved, quiet and didn't want to talk about what had happened. I respected his choice but encouraged him to talk to me if he didn't it. I did the only thing I knew to do: give him something familiar, establish normalcy.

He moved the following year but I have never forgotten him or his story.  Poverty is an issue that is global and we all know someone who has been effected by poverty... It was hard for me to choose one region that is being effected by poverty because EVERY region is effected. So, I gathered some facts about poverty in America and throughout the world.

Poverty in America:

Poverty is defined as the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions (wikipedia.org, 2012). The american poverty rate is increasing. In 2010 the nations poverty rate was 15.1% or 46.2 million people. This is the highest it has been since 1993. The poverty level for 2011 is 22,350 for a family of four. And nearly 60% of American's will spend at least one year in poverty between the ages of 25-75 (Poverty in the united states, 2012).

Poverty throughout the world: (Shah, 2010).

UNICEF reports that over 22,000 die each day due to poverty. Most of these children die quietly in remote villages.

27-28% of children in developing countries are considered to be malnourished, underweight or stunted. The two areas that make of the bulk of this are South Asia and sub-Sahran Africa.

The number of children living in the world is 2.2 billon. The number of children living in poverty is 1 billion which means every other child is living in poverty.

References:

Poverty in the united states. (2012). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_poverty_guidelines

Shah, A. (2010). Poverty facts and stats. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats