Poverty can be defined simply as the inability to afford minimum standards of food, clothing, and shelter.
Generational poverty, however, occurs when people do not have the resources, such as financial capital, education or social capital necessary to rise out of poverty, and it has occurred over two or more generations.
At Addis Jemari, education is one of our core values that we implement as a tool to help break generational poverty among the children and families in our program. When addressed properly, education brings big, positive changes in the lives of the people we serve.
At the start of our Family Empowerment Program (FEP), Addis Jemari gathered baseline data on the 50 families currently participating in the program. The data showed the 37 single mothers and 13 couples were struggling to overcome financial challenges and other barriers to provide for their children, including education. The data also indicated that without some external intervention, the likelihood that the poverty cycle will continue to children was generally high.
In today’s post, we will provide you with some information on how the overall situations of the families in our program were before they joined the program.
Generally, the 50 families in our program were living on a monthly income of between $20 to $60 USD. The level of education of the 50 mothers was very low: 20 mothers did not have the chance to ever attend school; six only knew how to read and write; nine dropped out from elementary school; fourteen dropped out from middle school; and one dropped out from high school. Similarly, among the 13 fathers, only one completed high school. Three of our fathers did not have the chance to attend school, two knew how to read and write, two fathers dropped out from elementary school, four dropped out from middle school, and one dropped out from high school. The majority of these families, therefore, depended on daily jobs to earn as much as they could to support their children. Each family has an average of two children and because of the limited resources they have, their children were struggling to fully engage in school. Four school-aged children had already dropped out of school and three had never been in school.
Certainly, not every child in our program is destined to repeat a family cycle of poverty. But education is an important tool to change or adjust the children’s current life trajectory, which is being shaped by their families’ economic situation. Breaking the cycle of poverty is not about simply providing resources to people, but requires a coordinated effort of addressing complex issues that contribute to poverty. AJ believes, combined with the overall coordinated effort of improving the income-earning opportunities of the adult members of the 50 families, education will empower children to maximize their potentials for a thriving future.
Be on the lookout for the second part of this blog post where we will discuss the work AJ is doing around children’s education to provide them with the necessary tools that will help them break generational poverty.
Stay tuned!