Today, the world marks the International Day for Eradication of Poverty. As I went through the morning paper today, there were a number of articles and ads that highlighted campaigns and issues related to the day’s theme: Poverty. Every piece began with statistics and definitions of what it means. And it made me think…. Is there really a single and right definition of poverty?
Institutions that monitor international development and the global economy also for years have set quantifiable definitions based on indicators which we’ve all heard about at some point or in some form. Maybe yo’u also study or work within the area of public health and development… Or maybe its in those 2 minute briefs on the evening news or during celebrity interviews that intermittently discuss the topic of global welfare. I’m not downplaying the importance of all this. On the contrary, they are critical! These markers and statistics give us very clear indicators which we can conceptualize and measure progress or regression in light of all the activity happening and funding being allocated. I’ve given it much thought, done academic research and also considered my experiential observations working in the field. Still, I question if we’ve lost a greater understanding of what poverty is.
When you consider circumstances of poverty , in the many forms it manifests itself in , emotional, material, spiritual, and physical , the bottom line is this: Poverty is inextricably linked to human suffering and suffering is something that cannot be captured by a definition. I read an article in the Daily Nation today, which is the primary national newspaper here in Kenya entitled. “Its Time to Stand up and Speak Against Poverty.” Its first paragraph is definitely meant to make a devastating impact on its readers:
” A Child dies every three seconds as a result of extreme poverty. More than 1 billion people around the world live in abject poverty, on less than 1$ a day. About 800 million people go to bed hungry every night and more than 6,000 people die from HIV/AIDS everyday.”
Astounding and devastating? Yes. Grabbing? No… at least not personally. I’m telling you as much as these depictions of poverty is important , we are surrounded with it constantly to the point that it can just become numbing.
Let me share with you what was the most grabbing and impacting statement in the entire page article. It was the first sentence in the second paragraph which simply stated to me the most important fact that we must hold on to in our awareness of the immeasurable levels of suffering that surround our world: ” It does not have to be this way.”
This is the point. This is the fact that enables us to take a stand and speak and act. It does not have to be this way. And this is why my understanding poverty and approach to affecting change has always been one that considers the definitions, indicators and measurements but is not bound by its limitations to perceive impact and improvement , but capturing also that you are touching that part of a person who is suffering. The fact is that the alleviation of poverty and human suffering can’t be approached as a formula with fixed elements that will derive a successful or exclusivly quantifiable outcome. Suffering and poverty cut deeper than material quantification. Poverty has a personal impact on people, which must be addressed as their daily earnings increase, their access to safe drinking water and adequate health services improve and as they learn or begin a trade to stand on their feet. It requires humanity in how you understand it and how you approach people living in it. I will always understand development in a wider scope which is not simply a matter of changing statistics , although that undeniably important- but rather restoring undeniable human rights: to live, to exist, to express, to explore and to become the full person we were all created to be.
So today, if you remember that it’s the International Day for Eradication of Poverty, I want to encourage you to really explore what it means- the lives and needs behind the statistics, behind the images and all that stuff. From there you will know just where you stand. You will know what to say. You will know how to respond. Finally, from there you also can refocus your attention onto the dreams, the growth, the rights and the HOPE that will be restored to others from that which you discovered inside yourself.
Nadia Kist
SFH Founder and Chairman
