In the past people didn't have money, clothes, homes, food and they didn't have a family.
Now poor people don't have what they need and some of them don't have the possibility to work. For pooor children is the one that allow them to go to school and learn, although they want to. There are children who would like to go to school, but they can't buy everything they need. So, they stay at home. They don't go to school anymore, because they feel embarrassed.
There are some differences between what poverty meant in the past and what poverty means today. I think that the most important one is that now, unfortunately, few people want to help.
In the past people helped a lot, although they weren' very rich.
Today not many people help, although they are rich. They have everything they need, but they are not willing to share.
For me, poverty also means being afraid, because homeless people live in the streets and many bad things can happen to them.
“Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit.”
~Eli Khamarov, Lives of the Cognoscenti
I will tell you a story about two girls: one rich and one poor.
Rich girl
I am a very happy girl! I believe I have everything I can think of: a huge, luxurious house, very expensive dolls or any other toys and expensive, nice clothes.
My mom and my dad work abroad (New York, USA) and I don't see much of them… I only visit them there from time to time, but I got used to it now…
Well school? What's this? Oh, yes! I go to school when I have time! I have to go to the mall and buy new things that make me happy first! Homework? Unfortunately I don't have time for it, either. No problem! Why worry now? I will do it later! I'm busy, I'm going to the travel agency to buy a ticket for New York!
Isn't it great?
Poor girl
Hello! Let me introduce myself… I am… a girl like any other.. I am… Oh, sorry I'm in such a hurry, but I don't have enough time: besides my homework for tomorrow and the extra work in math (I'm going to a school contest!) I have to go shopping for fruit and vegetables for my neighbour, lady Mary, who is alone and old. She offers me some money when I help her. This way I can buy bread and sweets for my little brother and sister. So you could say that… I have a job
My mother? Oh, she works very hard in a factory till 11 pm. Unfortunately, my dad died last year, so I have to help my mother. I also do some housework when I can.
I must go now. It's time for me to buy a newspaper for Mr. Johnson. He is our neighbour, too. He gives us honey from time to time.
I am so happy that I can do something for my family and my friends! When I grow up, I will work hard, too, and I hope I will earn a lot of money for me and my family.
***
Now just think about this… Who do you think is the happiest?
“ Remember that everyone you meet in this life has something to teach you.”
I think poorness means that somebody hasn't got something , no matter if it is money, education, food, clothes, friends and so on…
Being poor means more than not having money for a car, for clothes or even worse, for food! People are poor when they are not happy.
The rich think that the poor are just people who aren't like them, but that's not right. They will be poor of friends if they continue thinking like this. For both rich and poor people richness means having money, having servants or being very powerful. But you can interpret richness in another way. If you have many friends you are rich of friends, if somebody loves you, you are rich of love. Having or not having money doesn't make you rich or poor. You have to look inside people's hearts and see what's in there, richness or poorness. This is the real meaning of these words.
If somebody is poor of something you have to cry for him and help him, not laugh at him. If somebody is rich of something you have to be glad for him, and not sad or envious because you don't have the same thing.
I think that rich people (of money) should help financially the poor people (of money). But what if you yourself are not rich of money? Can't you help people anymore? Of course you can! The people who are rich of something should try to help those who are poor of the same thing, so that they can became rich of it, too. If your heart is rich of love, don't hesitate to offer it to others who need it, like the children in orphanages. If your head is rich of knowledge, try to teach the others what you yourself have learned through the years. Help a child learn how to read and write and you will also feel rich… in spirit.
“ Listen to your conscience: it will tell you how much to give. ”
Poverty means not having the means for basic human needs (for example, food, water, clothes , shelter).
In the past, especially before the industrial revolution, there were many poor people around the world. The poor had no land, no animals, and so they could not live a decent life . The poor famil ies couldn't afford to let their children go to school. They didn't have clean water, health care and many of them got sick. The c h urch used to help poor people in the past. Sometimes the rich also helped those who were in need.
After the wars, poverty spread in a lot of countries, because the economy was down.
Today, poverty is usually associated with not having a job or not having enough money to afford decent conditions for living. Some do not have acces s to information or to education. In many parts of the world there are people who still have little food, no health care, no clean water.
Today there are more social institutions that take care of those in need. The unemployed receive an unemployment income, there are shelters for people that don't have a house, there are canteens for the poor, volunteers who take care of the health and education of the poor.
In Romania there are poor people especially in the country-side. Many peasants leave in very poor conditions: they have no running water, no health care, no means to work their land. Many poor children abandon school. In the cities, the unemployed and homeless are given more support.
I think that the poor are very un happy people. They often feel rejected and alone. In my opinion, the poor people must be respected and helped.
Today, the poor people are not as many as in the past, but they still need help. Many of them were born poor, and they cannot do anything to change this. That's why they need help.
There are a lot of orphans in this world… this is a very sad fact. The orphans have no parents, they live with relatives or in an orphanage. I think they are not very happy, and you can say that they are poor because they do not have family love and support. So they must be helped.
All of them are just people like us and if we were poor, we would like somebody to help us.
I always try to help the poor people, because I want this world to be better. Maybe they have no house, no school, no money and no family, but what is important is to make them feel that they are not alone, that we are trying to help them and make them happy.
What did poverty mean in the past?
In the past, poverty meant that people had no house, no food or just not enough money. In the past people were poorer than now, but they helped each other more. They worked together, they shared things and they were willing to give more.
What does poverty mean today?
This is a question we can answer easily because nowadays there are many poor people.
For many people today, poverty means that you can't pay your bills, you can't buy expensive clothes, you haven't got a big house or you just can't buy what you want when you want. But there is another type of poverty; it's when you don't have a house to live in or you don't have the every-day food. This is something we don't want to hear about, but it is real and it is very painful.
How did people use to help each other in the past?
In the past there weren't special organizations or houses for poor people, so people helped each other by visiting and giving food to each other.
How can you help people in need nowadays?
Nowadays we can donate food, clothes and toys to some special centres for people in need. There are charity organizations such as “Save the Children” or “The Romanian Red Cross”.
Unfortunately, poverty was and still is an awful phenomenon which humanity does not seem able to defeat.
