Defining Poverty

Nau te rourou, Naku te rourou, ka ora te iwi.

With your food basket, with my food basket, we will have enough to sustain us all.

- Māori Proverb -

When I think about poverty, my mind wanders to what I see on television, of small malnourished children with swollen bellies and fights breaking out when aid agencies are giving out measured amounts of dried food. This is a somewhat narrow view and already my investigations are proving that there are varying degrees of poverty and that it is a lot closer to home than the overseas news items I often see.

UNESCO,  www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/international-migration/glossary/poverty has a broader view of what it means to be in poverty and ways to define it. As with other definitions I have looked at, this site describes poverty as insufficient means to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, healthcare and housing. There is also discussion about poverty in relation to quality of life, relative poverty and from an income perspective. I found it interesting to see that culture was also included as a type of poverty. The ability to hold your cultural identity is important to well being and the involvement in your cultural community.

Poverty has been with us though out history, however Danahey, (n.d), argues that between 1930 and 1980 approximately, New Zealand had near no unemployment, free education and health care, and involvement in society was close to a hundred percent.

However recent statistics show that “Since the 1980’s, New Zealand’s income inequality has grown more than any other OECD nation” (Poverty, n.d).  Statistics provided in Anglican Life http://www.enviroschools.org.nz/cardboard_house_4_-_child_poverty_fact_sheet.pdf now show that poorer parts of society often have the inability to buy food or provide their children with the nutritional breakfast they need to learn. Sub standard / damp housing has also resulted in high numbers of New Zealand children being admitted to hospital with respiratory illnesses and serious skin complaints.

In light of how poverty can be viewed and how many children “in our own back yard” are living in poverty situations, it will be interesting to see what initiatives the government has planned or put in place for housing and incomes for families in need.

REFERENCES:

Child poverty in New Zealand: Facts and resources. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.enviroschools.org.nz/cardboard_house_4_-_child_poverty_fact_sheet.pdf

Danahey, P. , (n.d). Poverty. Retrieved from http://uitrustnz.org/poverty.htm

Social and human sciences. (n.d). Retrieved from  www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/international-migration/glossary/poverty