Welcome fellow steemians,
When I joined Steemit, I did it because it was the promise of an ad-free Facebook that would repay content creators, while also relying on the community to vouch for good content.
I since spent a lot of time analyzing and discussing what can Steemit do in this regard and how could I help others. I would like to tackle the problem of teaching and while there are some initiatives I saw here, I would like us as a community to keep adding to it.
Poverty is usually a spiral in which those caught in can't easily escape. It all starts with a series of bad choices or even an inability to escape it in the first place after being inherited. Education usually helps but school is a luxury for some of them, or even if that is attainable, it is a place for the poverty stricken children to be marginalized and bullied.
Another factor to take in is that we, in our bubbles, sometimes want to get away or ignore the issue. It is easier to ignore an issue, scroll down and hope it will go away but in time ignoring this will have bad economical results and we will be affected by it.
Cycle of poverty:
- Initial poverty
- Child grows in poverty
- Lack of education
- Lack of future prospects
- Lack of skills prevents possible hire
- Establishes his own family in poverty
Here on Steemit we can't really tackle all of its factors but compared to Facebook for example we can follow up and give financial and educational aid to the ones seeking it.
I never agreed to the fact that poor people are poor because they are lazy. I am now putting myself to work to find and promote those that want to strive and work out of their poverty but they don't have the necessary background to do so.
I will try to detail the way in which we could help at every phase:
Initial poverty
Ok, worldwide we have this graph thanks to ourworldindata.org: The countries farthest to the left represent the lowest GDP countries, and on the vertical axis we have the percent of the population that are dissatisfied about their standard of living.
How can we help here? By keeping funds flowing to the NGO's that are on the field, that know the situation and supply food, medical aid, basic needs and guide the people via all sorts of ways. This is not something we can directly help here via Steemit, unless NGO's start pouring here and present their campaigns to the public. And we allocate funds based on those campaigns. Everything open, transparent and public, with updates on the situation.
Child grows in poverty
A child growing in poverty is slowly building up frustration, resentments, feels abandoned by the world and will generally see himself as opposed to the established people ( from TV from the media ). A child growing in poverty will have his character slowly eroded by his own and his families ordeals and will slowly reduce his wants and dreams to basic needs. This will cause a dehumanization as we already saw in the European immigration waves, a point where nothing would stop them from displacing themselves in order to survive.
What can we do? Provide support to the families raising children, financially and being there to support any issues they have, these are issues that we can easily overcome. It involves our time mostly but this is in my mind the most important insight they have into the outer world, a world of possibilities, of humanity. Being treated with respect is something everyone deserves.
Lack of education
This is the easiest of them all. We already know that education is scarce in some of the places that need it the most. We can easily contribute, the ones with a higher education can contribute even more. Children should not be taught mechanically but have them develop their character and personality. Taught how to spot opportunities, how to help others, how to be compassionate and so on. Reading and writing were never easier. Steemit keeps it in the blockchain for future reference. Dog wouldn't eat the homework anymore. We can't reach every corner of the world yet, but I am sure we can reach broader than ever before. Educate anyone as much as possible. This would also be beneficial to our own children, consolidate their own studies by adding their thoughts here.
In a few years time we would have a full generation of better educated children that will spread the word and instill trust in the platform. And they would actually make money from their time spent here so the parents will not feel the need to stop the learning process for short time benefits or chores that can be done by the parents. Children must be sees as the future and not as a help for the parents in their early years.
Pew defines the poor as living on less than $2 a day for a four-person family, while low-income households live on between $2 and $10 daily.
Lack of future prospects and skills
We could gradually help them towards a career. A skill they like to polish. Even something that they have no chance to attain otherwise. Some of us have businesses, we could take them and show them how it works: "A day at the office". Learn to code, learn to interact or simply see others. Give them insight of how their world could be. This gives them a good motivation to strive.
Establishes his own family in poverty
If everything works out we will be able to give everyone a better chance in life. With tutors in every aspect of development and life, I would dare to dream that he would get far. Maybe even starting up his own business, which would generate added value for him and his family and even his employees. This would create small bubbles of development, and he could end up helping others. We would get our rewards in the future, either intrinsically or extrinsically ( maybe you will tutor the next Bill Gates - which will hire your own child to do development for him ) or simply reward you later for your good deeds.
This works on so many levels and I think the only things we need right now is a commitment or willing to kick start it.
I am open to your ideas also, I would like to have a healthy debate on the subject. Maybe I am wrong, maybe I offended someone. Debate is healthy and could add to the progress.
I will donate the income resulted after this post to a local NGO, which I support anyway, even if this post makes no rewards. As always I will try to only contribute with @originalworks. Also inspired by what I read of @maverickfoo, @cryptogee, @hr1 and @alanmasters.
Thanks for your support!
I wish you an excellent week!
Sources:
My own experience and dreams.
Pew Research Center
Also remember to look at this before you go! This is humanities scientific reason for existence:
Thanks Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell for the great video.
More of my thoughts:
https://steemit.com/gender/@alexdory/a-thought-on-gender-bias-and-complying-to-the-gender-biased-world
https://steemit.com/education/@alexdory/education-is-key-for-progress-and-we-are-key-for-education-could-steemit-help