Poverty

As a child in elementary school I was not aware that I lived in poverty and we were poor. I remember people bringing us a box of food and toys at Christmas. I started to realize that we were poor when it was time to buy school clothes and supplies. We were not able to go until the day before school started and only got a pair of shoes and basic school supplies. My mother worked three jobs to support us and it was never enough. We lived in a small trailer and were not allowed to have friends come over. I also remember the trailer being cold because the heat was cut off. Because of my situation as a child, I have learned that its no fun being hungry. Now that I am grown and have children of my own, I am learning still. There have been times that I have gone without food to make sure that my children eat and have enough I buy something for myself maybe once in a couple months because I want my children to have new clothes and school supplies. Children in Russia face the same issues as anywhere else. UNICEF states that

•  "Children growing up in deprived households do less well in terms of life chances, in educational attainment, wages, employment rates and other social outcomes in adulthood. Child poverty is also being shown to be crucially linked to the inter-generational transmission of poverty, and its perpetuation. Any long term efforts to tackle poverty and inequality need effective action to break child poverty"

There are around 90 million living in poverty. When you grow up in poverty, there is more of a chance that you will remain in poverty throughout your life. In Russia, a family living close to poverty may chose not to have any or more children because it can push them into poverty. Therefore, the population will slowly decrease.












 http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/media_3372.html