This animation was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award.

For more information on Sir Ken’s work visit: http://www.sirkenrobinson.com

Youtube Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Fourteen million American children are hungry or at risk of hunger – that’s 30 percent of the population. These statistics prove that child poverty isn’t just a problem in the developing world; it’s a problem on our own shores, too. Yet child poverty in the United States could be alleviated for $45 billion, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. Although that sounds like a huge amount of money, it is in fact less than the amount of money given in annual tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans during the 1980s and ’90s.

According to UNICEF, well over 650 million children worldwide live in extreme poverty, and those numbers are on the rise. Poverty is defined as a lack of access to basic education, adequate health care and a healthy diet. These three fundamental needs affect the rest of children’s lives, define what kind of jobs they end up with, whether they’ll be strong enough or have sufficient access to health care to fight off even the most common illnesses, and how they develop physically and mentally. Going hungry isn’t just a short-term problem – it leads to health care problems in the future, too.

The National Center for Children in Poverty reports that just $1 spent on childhood immunization saves the country $10 in later health costs. And with health provision becoming a major concern for every American, anything that can be done to prevent the situation from deteriorating further has to be the right thing to do.

Children in need who grow up in poverty pay a heavy price throughout their lives. Research has shown that they suffer from more illnesses, perform poorly in school, and have more risk of succumbing to mental health problems, drug dependency or falling into crime and the penal system. Yes, there are success stories, but they are few and far between in comparison to the millions of untold stories about the truth about children in poverty.

Communities that are free of poverty are free to choose their own destinies. But communities blighted by poverty, whether caused by famine, a lack of jobs or the failure of the state to support its most needy citizens, don’t have that freedom. Their destiny is preordained, and is a self-fulfilling prophecy that is almost impossible to break. Communities blighted by war are possibly the worst hit, with the innocent always suffering the greatest consequences.

Mohandas Ghandi, political and spiritual leader in India, said, “If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.” It is this battle that is the most crucial if we are to win the war on child poverty.

It isn’t just a matter of injecting cash into the poorest communities; there needs to be a fundamental change at ground level in how we tackle child poverty. If we concentrate on supporting those who are most vulnerable to the effects of poverty, the cycle can be broken and a change for the better can take hold. Much of this work is taken on by local churches, who see the Bible’s principles of loving thy neighbor as among the strongest weapons in the fight against child poverty. By encouraging one another to support and care for children in need, that community spirit can find fertile ground upon which to grow and flourish.

Child poverty is unacceptable, it’s destructive, and it’s an issue that should concern every single American. But most important, it can be changed. With compassion, care and a practical approach that tackles the root causes, child poverty can be consigned to the history books and no longer be a specter that haunts the modern age.

Author is an experienced freelance journalist who supports children in need and the continuing fight against child poverty by working with Christian charities to help make a difference to children around the world.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremy_P_Stanfords

By Jeremy P Stanfords

Child poverty strikes at the heart of communities and can shake the very foundations of a society if left unchecked. Today, according to a UNICEF report on international poverty, more than 1 billion people around the world live on less than U.S.$1 a day. This isn’t just confined to the poorer countries; detailed research by UNICEF also estimates that one in 10 children in so-called developed countries live below the poverty line. The National Center for Children in Poverty estimates that nearly 15 million American children live in poverty, their daily lives a continuous battle for survival, fighting the effects of poor nutrition, poor education, and a violent subculture that encourages development of street gangs, guns and drugs. Although the social context of poverty has to be taken into consideration (children in need in the squalid slums of Rio de Janeiro will be contextually poorer than a child living in Detroit, for example), the overall effect is one that negates the God-given right of every child to have a happy childhood, regardless of the culture that child is born into.

Child poverty is characterized as a lack of access to a basic education, a healthy diet and adequate health care. Even in the most developed countries, millions of children in need fall through the social net designed to provide everyone with the basic needs of life. As poverty grips a neighborhood, perhaps through the impact of the economic crisis the world still finds itself in, these basic necessities become harder to distribute fairly and evenly among those who need them most.

It isn’t just a matter of providing financial help. What is needed is a rebuilding of the community, decent jobs, housing, education, and even a clean supply of water. These basics are what give a community its sense of purpose back, a pride in what it can achieve, and that most Christian of values – a willingness to care for its neighbors. Twelve million American children have no health insurance, and millions of others have inadequate provision. Every day, 27 children in the United States die as a direct result of child poverty. These fundamental needs define poverty, whether in the Sudan or South Carolina.

By facing up to and dealing with poverty in our own backyard, we can understand more about its effects across the world, and begin to work out how we can help children in need – not just by simply throwing our spare dimes and nickels into a charity collection pot, but by crafting workable solutions that involve the communities themselves.

For every $1 invested in giving children in need a good start in life, the country saves $7 in costs spent on health and in meeting other basic needs. Defeating child poverty needs not just money, but a change in how we think.

Author is a freelance writer with a deep-seated concern for the effects of child poverty. An experienced journalist, she is an active supporter of Compassion International and the work it carries out to help children in need in communities blighted by poverty.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremy_P_Stanfords