I haven’t received any response to the partners I contacted but, instead I looked into the http://www.childhoodpoverty.org website and I look at the country of Krgyzstan and the problems of childhood poverty. Kyrgyzstan is one the poorest ex-Soviet republics with an estimated 32.9 per cent of the population living below the Soviet ‘poverty line’. During the 1990’s Kyrgyzstan suffered many economic shocks and people living in poverty rose to over 60%.
Just in other parts of the world, children in Kyrgyzstan disproportionately live in poverty. Growing poverty has also led to children working in a range of jobs, from working in a range of jobs, from working on family farms, to agricultural labor for others, domestic service, selling or working as porters at markets. Recent research estimate that approximately 24 per cent of children work either full or part time, similarly since transition there are now homeless or ‘street’ children in Kyrgyzstan’s cities, and some reports of child prostitution and trafficking.
The situation of children today gives rise to serious concerns. There is a risk that poverty cycles could develop whereby today’s children grow up to be poor adults and pass the poverty on to their children. Through policies and actions a number of initiatives are under way to reduce poverty in Kyrgyzstan. The government has developed a Comprehensive Development Framework, which is 15-yearvision for development in Kyrgyzstan. It has also produced the National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NSPR), Kyrgyzstan’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. This is intended to be the first three-year plan for implementing the national development vision.
The first insight that I gained from studying the website and researching Kyrgyzstan is by examining economic and social factors at different levels which contributed to poverty in childhood. The second insight is how the Kyrgyzstan governments raises the profile of childhood poverty issues and increase the commitment to tackling them through anti-poverty policy and actions. The third and final insight that I gain through the research was finding out the main causes for poverty and the poverty cycle and increasing the knowledge of effective strategies to tackle them in different context.
Reference:
Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre: http://www.childhoodpoverty.org
Tonetta
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information on Krygystan. I wonder why some countries get more media coverage compared to others. Based on the information you shared, the situation for their children and their economy is very serious and I have not heard any of this on television or in newspapers. Krygystan's poverty levels reaffirm that poverty is a global problem. How can we get other countries to see that it is in everyone's best interest to address world poverty regardless of location. When the U.S. considers which countries to support or help, I hear "what is in the U.S. best interest". I think we need to stop sinking money into wars and start sinking money into solutions which address poverty.