While medical researchers and scientists are working around the clock to halt the progress of diseases that often destroy or severely inhibit young lives, the one greatest "disease" has not yet found even the hint of a cure. That disease is poverty. It is as prevalent in Third World countries as it still is in supposedly wealthy nations like the United States. Poverty not only often prevents children from a good education but, sadly, it often excludes them from the social progress and activities of their peers- children from homes not teetering on the brink of physical, fiscal and emotional disaster.
Recent research figures are devastating. The report states that there was a 3% rise in the number of children ages 6-11 living in poverty between 2000 and 2009. The report cites the following statistics for the United States in 2009: "25% of the population were children * 36% of all people in poverty were children * 42% of the children between ages 6 and 11 lived in low-income families * The federal poverty level in 2010 for a family of four was $22,050 * A disproportionate number of low-income children were children of color * Over half (64%) of the low income children were born to immigrant parents" (Manning and Kirkland, 2011, p. 302). It becomes obvious from this overview, that social disengagement (i.e. lack of a stable family surroundings, with one or both parents missing) plays a vital role in keeping children at the poverty level. These researchers also point out that, clearly, it is minority children who are suffering from life-long poverty the most: "Black children have about a 2.5 greater chance of being poor than their white counterparts and have a 7-times greater chance of being persistently poor* 31% of white children and 69% of black children who are born poor spend at least half of their childhood living in poverty" (Manning and Kirkland, 2011, p.303). Their research also t
...