I e-mailed my two chosen international contacts again but was unable to get a response from them. My goal is by the next assignment to be in contact with an international professional.
I did go to the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre website and received information on China in regards to poverty. What I learned was that in 2001, 5% of China's population lived the poverty line for the national average. In the urban areas, between 15-31 million people live in poverty. The poverty decline has been found due to the slow economic growth and the transition of social status. 4.2 million children live in poverty and 8.7 million live in disadvantage conditions (health and education). In Beijing, China, 75% of poor families could not afford the educational cost for children and 50% of poor families in Shanghai had no medical insurance because they could not afford it.
With China being a large nation like the U.S., they are confronted with poverty issues also. The children are the ones who suffer the most from the lack of available resources and support to assist parents who are working but unable to meet the needs fully for their families. We always see the good parts of China on the news but not always the poverty locations. Just like most other country's see the U.S. as a rich, vibrant country but they don't realize that we have a large portion of homeless families or poverty level families here in the United States.
Resource:
http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/
I too haven't had any luck reaching a childhood Professional. Hopefully, I will hear something soon and I hope you do too. In doing this blog assignment, one thing I realized is that majority of the poverty issues are related to slow economic growth. This does not settle easily with me, knowing that currently many Americans are experiencing slow economic issues. I'm just hoping that our economy turns around soon before we have more cases of poverty like other countries.
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