Poverty has been a big issue for centuries worldwide affecting individuals, families, and society itself. Many people living in poverty do not have the funds to afford the basic human necessities in their daily lives and provide for their families, including their children. It has limited their opportunities and torn families apart. Poverty has shaped the lives of people in some ways, including through its effects on education, health, and relationships.
Poverty has become an obstacle for children to achieve a good education. For example, in the article “Poverty and Its Impact on Students’ Education," National Association of Secondary School Principals says, “Students living in poverty often have fewer resources at home to complete homework, study, or engage in activities that help equip them for success during the school day. Many impoverished families lack access to computers, high-speed internet, and other materials that can aid a student outside of school.” This shows that kids are missing out on the necessary equipment to improve due to the lack of technology provided at home. Not every school gives children their own free laptop to take home and make use of it there because not every school has enough money to buy that many computers for every student at school. Parents may also lack the funds to buy their children the technology they need in order to complete their studies. On top of the internet bill, they must pay some and most definitely don’t have internet access. Poverty has a big effect on education by prohibiting kids that come from poor families from using technology for their education. Due to this, they lack knowledge and fall behind in their studies.
Health has become a very big issue, making people live in horrible conditions thanks to poverty. Individuals don’t have enough money to provide for their food, home, and health. For instance, in the article “Poverty and Health," by The World Bank explains, “Poverty is a major cause of ill health and a barrier to accessing health care when needed. This relationship is financial: the poor cannot afford to purchase those things that are needed for good health, including sufficient quantities of quality food and health care.” This demonstrates that being poor makes it challenging for people to obtain the decent care they need in their lives in order to stay healthy. Many of those who struggle financially may also not have access to health care or Medicare, which makes this a big obstacle to going to a doctor and getting medicines or treatments prescribed to them. The lack of meals may also lead to sickness. In order to stay healthy, people must eat a regular healthy meal twice a day, but for those in poverty, this can be a huge problem, especially when living in big families, because they most likely don't make enough money to provide for everyone or barely survive through the whole week and the next week after that.
Relationships in society have been torn apart due to the effects of poverty on families, communities, and partners. For instance, in the article ”Poverty and Child Welfare,” Oacas states, “Poverty can make it difficult for parents to maintain a work-life balance that allows them to spend time at home caring for their children and to be active and involved with school, extracurricular activities, and community life. Parents with a low income are more likely to work long hours in precarious jobs that do not provide basic support like parental leave and sick pay.” This shows that parents don’t get to spend enough time with their children, which has made families more distant from one another, especially the partners, because one will be so busy with work while the other is on top of taking care of the children or is also working so they can also provide financially. Then they begin to grow more and more distant as time goes on. The long work hours put a lot of stress on both sides because not only do the parents suffer with carrying more work on their backs, but the children don’t see their parents as much anymore, maybe just a bit in the morning before they’re dropped off at school, but that's about it, probably not at night because the parents may be working late hours.
Poverty is a tough challenge for families and individuals impacting health, education, and relationships. One major impact of poverty on education is how children are limited to technology at home and unable to complete their studies, especially without the help of parents, making it tougher for the children. Poverty has made it a struggle for families and individuals to afford the daily necessities in their lives, like healthy food and medicines, but buying these regularly can get a little too expensive, which then leads to cutting it down to afford cheaper items, but those items could probably not provide the same level of healthcare as the previous product did. Poverty then plays a big role in keeping parents more busy than usual, preventing them from spending more time with their children, which then leads to that bond breaking apart because while the parents are worrying about providing for their children, it begins to become more stressful for them, especially if it's just one partner who is working to provide for them, and if the job doesn’t give much, then that just adds on. In the end, poverty has a big negative impact on the education of children, the health of people, and the relationships between families and will continue to remain a challenge as many families go through this at some point in their lives, but it isn’t something that we can’t overcome; everyone pulls through somehow. Sometimes things may not work out, but there’s still hope.
When writing this essay I was mainly inspired by the book named, The Other Wes Moore, it tells the life story about two men who have the same name. The author of this book is Wes Moore, one of the men in this story. He learned about the other wes when he found his story in a news article and read it. They both grew up in Baltimore and lived in similar conditions. They were both raised by single mothers and had financial struggles. The author wrote a letter to the other wes who was in prison, asking if he could pay him a visit. While reading this book and learning about their financial issues in their similar lives, it made me realize how poverty has always been an issue worldwide. With that in mind, I decided to write an informative essay about the causes of poverty and how it has badly affected communities and society itself. When writing this essay, I made sure that I correctly used my sources and found the correct information. I wish for my readers to walk away with new information, take into consideration how many struggles others go through, and hopefully think to themselves how much this world can put us through and how fortunate others can be.