Ode To My Fellow Irishmen
Poverty is the inability to obtain your basic needs and participate in a social environment.Poverty is occurring because of many factors worldwide. Unemployment can create a high risk of being poor. If a child is born into poverty she will grow up and remain poor. Elderly and children are at risk of poverty, because they usually need to be supported. People who are disabled or have a long term illness are at risk of living in poverty. Lack of completing a basic education are at risk of being poor. Single parent families are at a higher risk than two parent families of living in poverty. Lack of work and high unemployment rates can cause people to be poor.
Poverty is most prevelant in Africa, with 46.4% of the population earning $1.00 per day in wages in 2001. In the country of Ireland, the mid west region has the highest percentage of consistent poverty at a rate of 10.4%. In Ireland there are two measures of poverty used: relative income poverty and consistent poverty. Income poverty refers to those people who are living below 60% of the median household income. In 2003, 22.7% of the Irish population, almost 900,000 people were living on less than € 185 per week (€9,668 per year) In Ireland the numbers for income poverty have been rising steadily from 15.6% in 1994. Consistent poverty is a poverty measure unique to Ireland. It measures the number of people on a low income,(under 60% median income) experiencing basic deprivation, not having food, clothes, heat, falling into more debt because of every day expenses. In 2003, 9.4% or 350,000 people were living in consistent poverty. If the issue of poverty is not resolved in Ireland, poverty will increase. There will be more people living off of the social welfare programs. The education levels in Ireland will drop, because people who live in poverty are at a higher risk to drop out of school or have a harder time learning in school because of the stressors in their lives. Two organizations that are addressing the issue of poverty are: The World Bank and Combat Poverty Agency. The World Bank is made up of two development companies that provide low-interest loans, interest-free credit and grants to developing countries for education, health, infrastructure, communications and many other reasons. The Combat Poverty Agency is a state advisory agency developing and promoting ideas to decrease poverty in Ireland alone. They conduct research, advise policymakers on effective means to decrease poverty, and promote themselves with various groups and affiliations. Here is the contact information for those organizations.
