Dear @Sribas, here are some accents from UN strategy :"The 2010 United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) concluded with the adoption of a global action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015 target date and the announcement of major new commitments for women’s and children’s health and other initiatives against poverty, hunger and disease."

I'm not an optimist in this regard!

http://www.un.org/en/mdg/summit2010/

http://post2015.org/2014/06/24/10-sustainable-development-goals-that-keep-the-eradication-of-poverty-at-the-centre-a-contribution-to-the-thinking-of-the-secretary-generals-owg-on-the-sdgs/

Dear @Sribas, here are some accents from UN strategy :"The 2010 United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) concluded with the adoption of a global action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015 target date and the announcement of major new commitments for women’s and children’s health and other initiatives against poverty, hunger and disease."

I'm not an optimist in this regard!

http://www.un.org/en/mdg/summit2010/

http://post2015.org/2014/06/24/10-sustainable-development-goals-that-keep-the-eradication-of-poverty-at-the-centre-a-contribution-to-the-thinking-of-the-secretary-generals-owg-on-the-sdgs/

Here in Arizona children from South America are being housed in warehouses and busses into Arizona. They came here to escape gang violence and poverty. Our streets are no better. Our reservations have third world conditions. We have had to put children in uniform becuse of the gang situation in NM and AZ.

Our child protection system has collapsed bcause of the violations in foster care for abuse and neglect. If a person applies for public benifits their children could end up harvested by these systems. I also looked at the federal reports of over medication of these children. Many of these children from other countries are being put into this foster care system. It was only focused on five states. Makes you wonder about the other 45. Counselors had prescriptions privledges taken away in those 5 states.

Poor are being harvested by prisons and pharmaceuticals systems. The foster care system is also a system of poverty (and slavery) because the children are forced to work and do not benifit from the money. Many people in poverty are harvested into the prison system as well. It goes as far as people being fingerprinted and ther picture taken because it is assumed people can not be making it on what they claim so sooner or later they will commit crimes to survive. Their children will be taken away.

All cities in America have thousands of street children and homeless children in families. After studying forensic psychology on the relationships between violence and poverty I too am not an optimist. The effects of violence starts in the womb. they are passed down genrations to generation as is grief, poverty and loss. It is actually passed down genetically.Oppressed people experience intergenerational trauma and grief. The freeway went through my grandmother's land and I became homeless at 4.I was kicked out of school and my home at 13. I expereinced kidnapping and still have PTSD and nightmares about being somewhere I don't know, with no money,no ID, not knowing anyone or that my car and everything I own was stolen and I can't find the place I am staying. I was a lucky one rescued by the FBI from slave traders.

We were slaves in foster homes. We worked in agricultural fields. I am not hispanic but Ican tell you I go through much oppression having a Hispanic name with the current politics especially in AZ where they don't realize this was Mexico and the Mexican war was lost or won depending on where you remember the border was. It used to go clear to Wyoming. If a person is a child on the street they are probably going to have to sell themselves or drugs to survive. If pot is legalized it would at least wipe out some of the illegal pot trade and prices would drop so that people who need it for medical reasons could actually afford it. When we had low income children at a community workshop, they had a completely different economic viewpoint. It involved the drug trade which shocked the upper middle class particiapnts that drove in from Santa fe and Albuquerque.

The leading cause of poverty has a relationship to Domestic Violence. Women do not make as much as men so when they leave their chances of poverty in children increases. These women and children can be forced in situations that harvest them more than help them rise above their situation.It effects men as well in other ways.More one parent families are falling more into poverty with the economic issues currently here in the United States.

I am aware that the UN supports the Status of Women. It has not changed much on wage equality ultimately affecting children. My mother who is 82 though told me when she was a young women she received 50 cents and hour. A woman had not choice but to try to find a husband just to survive. That may not make a difference in these times. Most women over 50 live in poverty alone except for the ones who are raising grandchildren because of substance abuse or incarceration. 

The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in history. The two states that are number one and two for having the best economy are Colorado and Washington State. These are the two states that legalized marijana. Use with youth does not increase with legalization but it does reduce prison populations.

Just try to get a job with a felony. Our prisons are based on the system of slavery. I would take a good look at the program by PBS: "Slavery by any other name". also the "Interrupters" on gang interventions. We are becoming more multi ethnic and more brown and yet the opportunities are more grimm for youth of color. Poor Anglo's are the biggest group of people in poverty which is up to 50%.This involves all of our futures and our children's futures. Education is relaxing its expections. The troubled ones are just kicked out to the streets.

http://interrupters.kartemquin.com/

http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/pbs-film/

I have personally seen 15 years olds with semi automatic weapons in daylight looking for victims for their gang initiations in towns like Gallup. There has been a war between two cartells since the 1970's. A new juvinile facility was just built there. That underware fashion show is a prison fashion.When we talk about gangs we are talking about children who live in poverty.I have turned down manager and teaching jobs because these jobs should not require weapons not without prison guard salaries (which are more than what teachers make).

I have been involved with coopreatives in rural areas since the1980's. My coop is based on a gifting, barter and pay it forward economy rather than based on money. It gave opportunities to teenagers and adults underemployed by combining our skills.I involve youth in computer recycling, survival skills and organic farming. Commmunity involvement helps keep children out of gangs.

I am watching a program on PBS right now on women being given economic opportunities. It is interesting how consumerism is being looked at in the war on poverty in rural areas in other countries. I help people with disabilties start thteir own businesses in rural areas. Many people in northern Arizona live in water haul, dirt roads missing utilties or off the grid. These areas have few jobs and it is living off the land.

Children benifit more from individual adult attention more than having things.Food suppliment programs are aimed at children. States like California do not give food benifits to adults with any income between the ages of 18 and 65. The states are confiscating parents estates to get back funds they paid out so that the children are not inheriting their parents estates. This is adding to bank owned foreclosures.

The mountain town I live in of a thousand people is almost all up for sale but no one gets any offers.More people are living in RV's, mini cabins or camping with children. Land restriction limit where you can live like this on the land. You can lose your children just not having a place you cannot afford to live.

I put his up early morning before I went to bed and had to correct my dyslexic spelling and added a little to it.

I'm deeply saddened to read such information. Children should be treated rightfully. I agree with Prof. Kamal, there should not be child poverty.

Civil war in many countries is responsible for displacement of families, and in turn for children poverty. We should give those children all the help we can. Save the Children announce that in 2013 they helped 15.4 million children around the world.

It is better to stop the cause of children poverty. For instance, I will never understand why people fight because of religious reasons.  

Dear All,

What Bonita narrated is terrible. What kind of world we have created? We are complaining because of the environmental devastation, we “humans” who willingly sentence our children to hopelessness and formed  unbearable life conditions as the best world of all possible worlds.

Dear Marcel,

The answer is simple: these people do not like to think and are not able to think because they live in states where the corrupt leaders do everything to manipulate the untrained population.  

Most poverty is caused by corruption at all government levels, why I work for myself. We are manipulated because we have so little power to change things. Make all the laws you want but we just enforce police state tactics. States like NM make up their rules as they go even at the universitiy level. If you have a federal job to enforce federal use of funds at the state or city level you are going to be at risk just trying to do your job. As a Vista Americorps volunteer I realised all the towns losing the war on poverty were corrupt. Imagine how fun it is to have one of those projects for a year when you cannot even find one legitimate use of a grant project or use of funding. Say something and it is a real career killer for decades. Children are the real losers on the wars against the poor.

I have been involved with coops, bartering and gifting cultures not based on money since the 1980's. Many of us are choosing a simplified life using less oil, water, electricity or producing our own energy. Happiness is over rated. Policies tend to protect the overlords and oppress the underclass. The real differnce between religion and spirutally based ideloogies is that religion is words written down by men and often used to oppress and justify hierachies that colonize. Also that those who are into religion can misuse or oppress others. They may be into religion because they fear death and hell. Others who really understand hell and death have been there and back understand spirituality. I personally only trust my own mystical experiences and interaction with nature.

Everyone is dark and light but it is how you use and balance this that really matters in your actions in the world. Money is not real. I barter in real exchanges or things and services and give away what ever I can. I move to much to accumulate much. I am not allowed to acumulate wealth as a person with disabilties. Money does not really matter. How we treat the earth and each other seems more important. If everyone had a better concept of sharing their would be nothing we would need. I don't notice any middle esternization in the world I interact with. I just know I love to drive and gas is high as is food and I love to indulge in both. Both take oil the way we live now. Oil is limited and will run out. We have all kinds of alternatives we better get started on.

Sribas,

You have mentioned key issues that are so very important. "Hats-off" to you, friend. Again, I think we need to start using qualitative data prior to measuring populations with Likert-type scales. I would run a focus group with teachers and parents about family involvement and note what their understanding is of new sustainable development goals, maybe how familiar they are with the Rio Principles, more importantly, do they believe or trust in the possibility that anyone really cares or do they believe that all are just finding a new way to make a buck. 

The family's perceptions of their role and responsibility in their children's future and participating in struggling actively against poverty can help the mind-set of young children, such as motivational prompts toward education. The Family is a key element in predicting community and governmental actions toward eradicating extreme poverty (globally) for our children. I must read-up a bit. 

“Voices of the Poor”, upon which Dying for Change is based, is the result of a wide ranging qualitative study involving interviews and small group discussions with more than 60,000 poor women and men from 60 countries, including a review of 81 Participatory Poverty Assessments (see link below).

(1) Voices of the Poor, a project led by Deepa Narayan, World Bank, published 2000. The resulting 25 publications are available online at www.worldbank.org/poverty/voices.

 Also, interesting to me, is reading similar methodologies for disturbing trends with our youth. For instance, McDermott and Rothenberg, (2000) conducted a qualitative study conducting focus group interviews of teachers, children, and parents in low-income settings. The link below presents the paper reports McDermott’s and Rothenberg’s (2000) findings.

McDermott, P., & Rothenberg, J. (2000). Why urban parents resist involvement in their children's elementary education. The Qualitative Report [On-line serial], 5(3/4). Available: http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR5-3/mcdermott.html

Best Regards, 

Marilyn

@ Marilyn , Thanks for your support. I have gone through the link you have provided. Very useful. 

There were two links, one did not activate: www.worldbank.org/poverty/voices.

Dear All,

Thank you very much for your first views on a very important and difficult subject. If children's rights is a recognized fact, it also means to be respected with implementation of accompanying mesures as it has been rightly said.

This is in fact, often inseparable from respect the right of people in the countries concerned, the establishment of a rule of law, the fight against corruption, raising the level of life and of education...and of our view of the country beyond the assistance given !

Then may be the children shall rise above the poverty level...but the task is quite large.

Francesia:

Have you read the history of Agenda Setting Theory?

--:-) Marilyn

Children rarely have any rights and are often treated like slaves.That might be a place to start.

Bonita:

Are you referring to Children in certain underdeveloped areas of the world?

Please clarify, so that I may provide a scholarly response. 

--Marilyn

Dr. Marilyn B Field I live in northern Arizona which is very underdeveloped once you leave all the over priced cities. Most of Northern Arizona is in third world conditions as is many areas of New Mexico. Children in the foster care system are often slaves. Arizona's foster care system collapsed as well as our child protection agency because of the abuses. If you are poor you are processed for the prison system, the mental health system and can lose your children in the foster care system.  

I did a great deal of research on the federal studies on the state of our foster care system. I did studies on the effects of violence even in the womb, in forensic psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. The reason for the children from other countries being warehoused in Arizona was because we ran out of foster care providers. Not enough foster care homes opened for the number being sent here from other states.  

In the1980's I personally witnessed children being airlifted from reservations being adopted in Crises Pregnancy programs of the LDS and Catholic Church. It is why there are child protective laws now about Native children. As a special needs child in the foster system myself people wanted that money for caring for me. I assure you we were slaves, forced to work in the yards and homes of the foster parents and even their church. They had 8 foster children in addition to their own. I was a child model and did agricultural work. I raised my brother's and my mother asked me if she made a slave out of me. I told her I was sent to help her family and did it willingly.  

People focus on what is happening in other countries oblivious to what is happening in this one. I witnessed many grandparents raising the grandchildren because of the Meth epidemic or alcohol or other addictions. I worked in the Domestic Violence field with both men and women. Domestic Violence is a leading cause of homelessness, poverty and losing children in the foster care system. We incarcerate more people than any other country in history. There are children caught up in this cross fire especially in cities losing the war on poverty.  

When I was in Globe Arizona if you applied for food help or health insurance or any other help you were tested for drugs, finger printed and your picture was taken every time you had to bring a piece of paper in or be interviewed. You were proceeded for the prison system automatically.The leading reason women go to prison at that time was writing bad checks or trespassing trying to get their stuff in a domestic violence situation. Their children are put in foster care or residential treatment centers.   I escaped from a fundamental Mormon family at 12, became a Buddhist. I was a slave at home and in the foster care. I have worked since I was 4 as a child model, working in the fields picking berries, watching pets, cleaning. many children with disabled parents are the caretakers.

When I was put in boarding schools I escaped and lived in a commune on the Taos reservation. When I went to live with my father in Mesa I was kidnaped by slave traders but luckily sold to a undercover FBI agent and rescued before anything happened to me. I share this to raise awareness about what I rose above to be in academia. Yet, I still fight to be able to participate in it because of where I came from and since I have disabilities.

I fight just to be allowed to participate in society. I have been blocked and censored for talking about what is going on in Arizona currently and about my own childhood of being on the streets in the United States. Before the freeway took my grandmothers' farm and property for a freeway I was in the middle class. Once I became a refugee of the middle class I have never been able to get back into the middle class.

I am temporarily there until my student loans run out and I face escalating debt. Which is the only class privilege I have left that I cling too. Academia is a protective bubble if you can get through the politics to stay in it but it is not always connected to the realities of people I deal with and help.  

I did not teach school like my grandmother did because the kids have access to semi automatic weapons. In Georgia you can now wear guns to school if you are a teacher. I grew up in Lents in South East Portland which is a bad neighborhood on the outskirts of Portland. the little punks, greasers and teeny boppers only had pocket knives, drank Boones farm and smoked pot and occasionally stole cars and shop lifted. They did not do drive by gang initiations and fight clubs.

When my parents offered me to take over their property I declined because the city was putting sewers in and putting liens in against the properties and you could small pot and meth in the air from neighboring properties.

I took one look at the weapons being confiscated from high schools now especially on the reservations I got out of teaching, not realizing next all the money for counseling, rehabilitations counselors and mental health workers would be cut. We are just locking people up in prison. Gallup built a new juvenile facility.  

I had to get out of forensics and back into art therapy. It is too dark and discouraging. How is it that our children has such easy access to military issue weapons, meth and heroin. You ask a street kid why and they say it is easier to get than a job, or even alcohol. I have worked with church groups who got kids into a shelter and out of prostitution. Half of this country is in poverty even if they are working. This is has to have an effect on our children.

Many of our children in poverty live in slavery type conditions. Our groups homes and foster homes and children with bad parents. I worked at Job Corps for a while. My pay was so low that I could not continue. These kids can tell you everything about games, music and multimedia but need help filing out a job application and simple life skills. Their situations compared to mine in the 1970's way worse.  

At least when I lived on the Taos reservation I had a underground kiva with free rent, a woodstove, a car battery operated radio, a horse to get around and hot springs to bathe in. I chose that to fosters homes or boarding schools. Escaped every place they put me. I am autistic and suffered to much bullying in these dreadful places.

There are plenty of people try to stop me from being in higher education because of my disabilities and where I came from. I am a straight A student when I get the accommodations I need.  I have volunteered to teach art and crafts to programs serving lunch to children of homeless families.  I love working with street kids to try to get them out of the clutches of our prison system.One of the ways I worked to keep Rez kids from joining gangs is to give them upgraded recycled technology. Important protective factors are grandparents whether they are foster ones or theirs.So is being connected to community and cultural and ethnic traditions. What chances do the lost kids have?

As the brains are brainwashed and addicted to games it will be very hard to change. You don't have to be poor to get a poor spirit and with a poor spirit the system is manipulating very easy. Here all the farmers are gone, the middle class disappears and what rest is the manager and the slave. The socialism has given tools to play with but not a critical philosphy. I see the problem everywhere and indeed the children must be given a future.

Francesca,

I agree; the thought of a child being taken away of his or her parents is too awful; even when the parents are not fit. Not fit due to abuse or addiction. NOT UNFIT BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO MONEY. 

I have spent a great deal of time studying Goldstein's, Rogers's, and Maslow's work. Since self-actualization is essentially becoming everything that one is capable of becoming (or reaching one’s full potential); I can only imagine the challenge when one has spent their lives stricken with poverty. Maslow (2006) noted, "the basic needs of humans must be met (e.g. food, shelter, warmth, security, sense of belongingness etc.) before a person can achieve self-actualization - the need to be good, to be fully alive and to find meaning in life (Maslow).

I am the last person to blame the wealthy or “well-off” individuals in a society as the cause of poverty or the reason why it exists; why are hardworking people who have earned a living for themselves and their families shamed for their hard work and told they should work hard and give their money away. This will not solve poverty; but may promote the same, only everyone will be under the poverty line except the Government. I believe empowerment, motivation, love, and respect, with lots of hard work, will assist those individuals in climbing out of a life without met needs. There are so many successful people in this world who have achieved self-actualization from backgrounds of extreme poverty. I have spent much of my career working with alcoholics, addicts, and those suffering from AIDS. I never underestimate the strength of human character. Essentially, it will take the world to work together to end poverty, that includes the poverty stricken.  

According to International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), “many low-income countries the majority of the poor and extremely poor (those with incomes below one dollar a day) live in rural areas” (p.22). Helping poor producers to increase their output is often the most effective process for relief from poverty and in my opinion the individuals’ psychological Well-being.  

IFAD. (2003). Achieving the Millennium Development Goals by Enabling the Rural Poor to Overcome Their Poverty. Retrieved from http://www.ifad.org/gbdocs/gc/26/e/panel.pdf

** Francesca: First you answered my question about Agenda Setting Theory with an exclamation "Dear Marilyn B. Field, no, I didn't!".  I am a bit confused as to how you can "exclaim" in response to a theory you have not read. What assumptions did you make to illicit an exclamation point? Agenda Setting Theory basically states that the media governs our thoughts about what is important. Ironically, childhood obesity is a healthcare issue here in the U.S. This is especially for families in the Lower SES bracket. (See Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution).

---Marilyn

Bonita:

I will address your response ASAP as you deep and critical thinking is portrayed in your creative writing. You may want to take a look at my article here on RG.

Integrated Indigenous Medicine

Dr. Marilyn B Field

ABSTRACT: Native-American medicine is rooted in indigenous traditions and is considered an indigenous healing custom. Native-American healing reflects common themes which exist not only among the diverse tribal populations of the United States but also has an impact on healthcare globally. The World Health Organization (2005) recognized that, due to 80% of the population in the world being unable to afford high-tech Westernized medicine, they have recommended indigenous medicine be integrated into nation healthcare policies and programs. In order for indigenous wellness initiatives to be integrated into mainstream medicine, there must be collaboration among tribal leaders to present cohesive constructs necessary for research to be conceived, operationalized, and replicated. Western medical research needs to return to the field to gather more data on indigenous understandings of wellness to counteract the biases inherent in the utilization of biomedical health and wellness initiatives and it methodology. Prior to a discussion of indigenous integration into primary health care, communication has to effectively take place in a professional forum. Unless myths are dispelled and culturally competent health care workers are a requirement of the health care profession, collaboration might be impossible.

---Marilyn

Marilyn: My current majors are creative writing and psychology. I do not get to combine the two in my papers. What happened in NM is Indigenous counselors lost their jobs and organizations lost funding for them, when we were required to get licenses and degrees. Not all of us have been able to because of barriers related to the situations where we live and other factors. The governor of AZ went a step further and cut funding to all counselors. Only the Veterans Administration found they needed Medicine Men but somehow the women were left out of this new loop. competence needs to go in both directions because American is a multiethnic environment. My Applied Research Project I am working on now is Quality of Life Consulting: Motivational Interviewing which uses a Indigenous model.  I really could use this reference for that project. My biggest problems is going long in a kind of brain storm stream of consciousness. It is the way I organize information. As I am editing I think of more to add and it goes too long. Then I have to edit and summarize.

Please see this article in the Journal Economics Letters: "Global extreme poverty rates for children, adults and the elderly" for an answer. You can find the article here:

http://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v120y2013i3p405-407.html

Most women over 55 live alone in poverty as I do. Going further deeper in debt with $14 a day with student loans interest. society expects us to volunteer but won't even count it for our scholarship obligations.

"Statistics is people with the tears wiped away"

http://www.quotegarden.com/statistics.html

Dear All,

On the one hand many shared experiences and on the other hand facts. To provide a lasting solution to this very serious problem it seems necessary:

- To improve the socio-economic conditions of the entire family and beyond the society as a whole.

- To improve health conditions and education conditions for children...with collaboration of family, health services, social workers,  educational services.

- The isolated actions are insufficient but structured programs should be developed with effective participation of political authorities (similar to the DOTS  in the strategy against tuberculosis)

- Public health strategies associated with community health program must involve people in identifying problems and to develop specific solutions, to implement and allow their evaluation of the programs developped and to adjust.

Regards. Jean.

Check the MODA module by UNICEF for practical statistical applications. 

Probably following traditional MDGs is an easy for it to reflect child poverty concerns. 

Is there a post MDG agenda, or do we just need to refine some goals in response to results, implementation issues, tailored to political realities, refining of visions, etc.?

I.e., are you asking a) how should we do this? or b) what are we already planning on doing? Very different kinds of questions leading to very different methods for answering the question.

Statistics are used to hide so much that goes on. NM makes it so only the women Indigenous counselors lose there jobs. The AZ governor cuts all money for all counselors. Medicaid pays for clients to be the new peer counselors for 8.75. an hour. Poor people are being harvested by the pharmaceuticals and put in these jobs. These drugs are not safe for long term use. When someone can't take the side effects any more and try to come down that is when you hear about mass shootings.

I was turned down for one of these jobs because I am not in the mental health system or part of the Welfare to Work. When they found out I was disabled and a student, they offered me a job for no pay. I was told that my 3 years of volunteer and Practicum, would not be counted. So the whole scholarship just appeared on my credit report, no notice, destroying my credit.

So now I am making preparations to relocate somewhere I can get a better wage. Breaking my lease here in AZ. 4 years later the previous school offered to let me finish and asked if I could transfer classes because they want me to work right away or they are going to keep destroying my credit to try to force me out of academia that way. 

I come from a stubborn Native and Scottish and Irish Pioneer people. I won't be forced into a system of slave labor. I will keep going and get  a PhD. I hate it when I have to relocate when school is in session. I prefer to do it on the breaks. These trying to stop these actions is keeping me from my work. I have two writing intensive capstones to work on. I am taking extra classes so I can have more time working with my favorite professors.

The previous university want me to have paper signed from my doctor that I am disabled so I cannot get any more financial aid. If I have them sign a statement that I can work now I lose my SSDI. I refuse to sign anything. When I first went to graduate school I was taken off my SSDI and had to fight to get it back. Then I was kicked out of school for having a disability. I was kicked out of high school but instead went to college at 15 and was an honor student. Because I am autistic this is the story of academia.

My grandmother was a school teacher and she gave me this gift of education to help me survive. The freeway took our land but education is one of my last class privileges I cling onto for dear life. As a refugee of the middle class and living on the reservation in third world conditions I learned to conserve resources and live more simply on less. Even if I get more money I will not change how I live. I make landlords and roommate bills go down.

I did not mean to rant or get off topic. I connected with old friends I have not seen in 20 years. They are helping me relocate. Housing is always a huge issue. These medications put on weight as does the commodity diet. Size is a huge class barrier and issue. Dr. Russell Means in "Where white men fear to tread" says the commodity diet causes diabetes and obesity. When people return to the diet of their ancestors they do not have a obesity problem. I gained a hundred pounds fighting cancer. I was athletic. I look at struggles as teaching so I can help those following me on the same path going through the same struggles. I ended up on the reservation because I fired all my doctors who were poisoning me and sought alternative healing techniques. I do not get into it too much though as it is some rogue research for an anthropologist. I do not publish that research. I appreciate the kind words and philosophy. I have just had a bad week this full moon. I will start putting more writing up soon.

I am watching the special on prescription drug addictions. Which is a component in poverty that affects children in poverty.

@ Bonita

Indeed, child poverty is often a direct result of the situation of the parents. They can't get work, worse than average parenting (the fear of every good parent), are too busy working in low wage jobs to spend time with their children but don't make enough money to find alternatives, have low education and thus cannot assess nutrition options, or have poor financial planning skills, or a whole host of other things. 

Sure, addiction to prescription drugs is not going to help any of that.

But if we are to focus on the children. Their parents must have access to the basic resources needed by the children. Maybe for addicts you need to give them foodstamps instead. But, for example, taking a parent away from a child is almost NEVER in their best interests. 

So I encourage careful thought about the best interests of a child, and how every child has ONE mother and ONE father at most (the community sure as heck don't raise them any more), before wondering what to do for the children when parents struggle with dependency issues, often based on some legitimate physical or mental condition.

There is no worse poverty for a child than to have their parent taken from them. Let that be the guiding thought when considering dependency challenges on the part of parents of poor children.

I would have given anything to be adopted not swapped around in foster homes, boarding school and to be returned to an abusive home life. Would it not be great if children had a voice and legal protection and their own legal council. I know I sure could have used that. No one asked me if I wanted to live in my home. I was once locked up in Protective custody for 3 months in an adult facility when my mother threw me out of the house at 13. No lawyer. No room at the juvenile facility. Did not commit any crime. Escaped every place they tried to put me. Was legally emancipated at 17. I share this because it is just one story among many. I advocate for the voiceless. I have worked in homeless and domestic shelters.I did studies in forensic psychology about children and the lives of people in prison and what kind of family life they had. 

Many of my friends are teachers. They tell me how hard is now to teach children coming from these broken homes. Not even having the stability of growing up at one school and neighborhood. So many children are re-fostered as my brothers and I were. We end up always going to new schools and being shuffled around. Being a military brat I carry a sense of inner homelessness and abandonment and night mares about that from having such a childhood that lingers into adulthood.

Children are refugees from violence streaming into the foster care system and holding warehouses from gangs and violence over drugs. It is children that are the soldiers in these cultures of poverty and violence. What are they coming into here. I stopped teaching when I saw the kind of guns the high school  students had access to and that were confiscated from the high school here in this country.

My friend was telling me he lived in the suburbs as a latch key kid because his family had to work so many jobs just to live into that part of the city. He said they were poor but they lived in a good section at least but on there own. I was watching the reality prison shows and was struck at all the young mothers there. Programs are being cut. The burden has gone to the churches.

My friend who is a teacher told me his marriage broke up because with his student loans and his cost of living prevent him from allowing them to start having children. Being in a room with 30 kids all day might also have something to do with him not anting children. he tells me about these children of poverty, broken homes, foster care and a community with an economy that is going down.  Some states are trying to find ways to limit how many children one can have if they are poor.

My solutions are raising minimum wage, paying teachers more, legalizing marijuana. treating addictions instead of incarcerating addicts, more safe houses for homeless children and refugee children. Legalizing marijuana would be a start but what to do about the Meth problem I beyond all of us. How can one not focus on what is putting these children into poverty. In CA pretty much only households with children get food stamps. Anyone else have any ideas of solutions?

Every human being must have a job and be well-paid. Is it possible?To FAO (2012) every 7 human being suffers from chronic famine, 1 child dies from famine in every 6 sec. To NSA USA (2004-05), 24.000 human beings die from famine every day- mainly men and old people. It causes shooting war, which destroys agriculture, migration, robbery, killing, violence, epidemic, suicide. Famine causes national strife. To Che Guevara, "Famine makes people be revolutionists". To Alex de Waal, "Every government, if it wants, is capable to take measures to stop famine". The main reason is that political elite is merged with oligarchy within the ME.To M.Gandhi, "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed". Greed is the reason for emptiness in the soul. You are right, it's "a scream in the desert".There are initiatives- "1 billion hungry campaign", "Release the Feast", activists, like Raj Patel.But the problem remains the problem.I think, every working human being must help jobless as much as possible."Charity begins at home".http://30hourfamine.org/2013/07/the-2014-famine-theme-is/?cons_id=0&ts=1405315650&signature=912fd4939f88dccf2fb646779354e0c8

Poverty is a man made problem due to selfishness, arrogance and unthoughtful amaze of wealth.... in addition war and neglect.

Further nature thrusts through torrential rain, hurricane, typhoon, storm, Tsunami, Earthquakes and other disasters ...........

Both the above affects economy and continued employ-ability....Further recession and employee relations also contributes to downsizing, retrenchment and layoff, closure etc.,which are more pronounced in growing economies.

To start with a CLEAN SLATE somewhere is the best option, but who will take the onus to INITIATE such a process of handling poverty....

Providing "everything for everyone" becomes communism and hence others may not like such a case....

"NO CHILD NEEDS TO BE BORN TO A POOR - but it has no options to decide"....

Honestly if everyone of us, as CITIZENS, look to use the nature and resources in front of us with a JUSTICE of BEST USE and NO ABUSE, very less or controlled levels of wastage and REUSE; then governments as WELFARE state can take care of the 'under privileged' to can rise above to a foot hold for betterment and then spike-up their growth...

WAR, AMMUNITION'S, DISTRACTIONS, LOSS OF LIFE, .... leads to DISTURBED MANKIND

I have been an activist since I was 12. I realize I write at a 14 age level. My natural writing style is poetry and I am an artist studying to be an art therapist. I have language and auditory integration problems and am autistic. I actually am a good researcher. I have to use a thesaurus to get my work at the graduate level. I am a visual person that thinks in pictures. It costs less to help poverty than harvesting them into the mental health system or prison.

I was a Vista AmeriCorps's volunteer a few times. The mission is to fight poverty. If my health improves I would do the peace corps once too. One of my projects to alleviate poverty was to provide technology to children who cannot afford it especially on the reservations and border towns. Teaching children how to survive in nature, grow food, self efficiency and other survival skills ensures our future. I only survived because I had a grandmother who was a teacher until I was 4 or 5 who taught me how to be a good student. I share because I don't want to be invisible. I am made invisible in the world. I only have presence online.

We can encourage resiliency. There are many ways to build protective factors. I survived because I had some good teachers since my home life was not too good. I survived because I fled my home and lived on the reservation. It scientifically proven that being kind every day one person at a time in any way you can has a positive effect that is paid forward. If we give children more rights and a voice they will be the saviors of our future and our new leaders when we pass the torch to them.

Dear @Bonita, I am so glad about your experience as an activist since you were 12! It is amazing. You have volunteered so many times and it deserve respect! Such experiences will help You a lot in your academic career! Wish You the best!

"I only survived because I had a grandmother who was a teacher until I was 4 or 5 who taught me how to be a good student. I share because I don't want to be invisible. I am made invisible in the world. I only have presence online." - Thanks dear @Bonita for sharing!

In my opinion, presently the ressources of the earth are sufficient to satisfy the needs of men... and to participate in the prevention of the precariousness of the children.

Charity is a quality of individual and action of our commitment; both are necessary in fighting against the pain of the most vulnerable whose children (more often affected by addictions).

But the final solution is general and proceeds in Health programs, Social and Educative measures...and also in Economical and Political choices.

Not to accept someone suffering he (her) gives without making suffering him (her) suffer him(her)self, but trying to make him(her) understanding why...and why nevertheless giving him(her) attention...

The French Philosopher P Ricoeur considered an other way to think the relation with the other to best understand him...this is to consider to be the same as another (and not to consider the other same to me) ...

This way of thinkinking can help transform oneself and the other.and allows to become an  "men different" te meet again the others in the world of the "other men" (those who have  not yet make  the work of introspection and self abandonment turned to the other)

Regards. Jean.

I would like to add that opening opportunities for the parents to achieve things/goals might help as the child poverty starts from the adults/parents transfering their misfortune to their children.

Hi,I think separating family and child poverty through a measure is a great idea.  There are many children in need who miss the radar because they are not in households identifiable by low income cutoff.  In Canada the Best Start report cited Canada as ranking 25 out of 30 developed countries for child wellbeing.  pointing to need for social framework to facilitate what obviously is not coming 'naturally'.

The highest levels of poverty exists in the third world especially in Africa. Poverty attracts disease,crime,illiteracy,low self worth etc .EDUCATION remains the best route to post 2015 MDG

I worked on the post 2015 agenda and think that social protection is the solution to child poverty. Social protection should help fight vulnerability (poverty and risk) and respond to prevention, promotion and transformation matters.

We must focus on access to social facilities, rural entrepreneurship and education (not only basic education but also vocational education)... We also need to have country specific goals (not only country specific targets)

I also think relying on a mental health state of affair and social welfare helps in downgrading societal resilience and financial contribution and this has contributed to most of the countries child poverty issue and the downturn of their economic growth.

I am in full agreement with Aristide and Sikiketty. Many thanks fo these answers. Jean.

In addition to the Rural entrepreneurship, Vocational education, Social welfare, Social risks evasion, vigil Labour employability measures etc.,

Awaiting for funds from Foreign agencies and other organizations, only spreads the "TALK on CHILD POVERTY" and advertises the activity than to provide a real mean of support and development to "change the the situation".

Corporate tax savings and the Social responsibility allocations, Alms and Offerings from general public in all charitable and religious congregations should directly to the social welfare kitty of the government. This along with the budget allocations will hold to be a substantial amount to build a prospective governance towards the upliftment of the project such as protection of child against exploitation.

Fund management for programmes get diverted as NGOs / Institutions which pick up prioritized or focused interventions which are in vogue and widely talked, during a particular time period and channelise their movements towards it, not really knowing the end. In many cases the end is only a 'Wish Statement" with no practical possibility to even near it.

By en-mass application of Social Change initiatives on a  common measure by non-concentrated programmes only dilute the impact of work and does not bring in a visible development.

I am deeply concerned about these children streaming into my area from South America. They arrive starved and traumatized. They should be given refugee status and not sent back. I am also concerned about our own children. These households in Detroit having their water turned off. Our cities in the US have thousands of street children. Where do our children escape violence and human trafficking on our streets? Canada? You really do not want to look at our foster care system that collapsed here too closely. This is not the extreme poverty perhaps suggested here. Many children live in extreme poverty on the reservations. It is $300 a month per person not $30 a month. There are so many levels of extreme poverty. A child on the street involved in the drug trade is not going to be in the same level of poverty as a child picking over trash to survive. We certainly need solutions that are much more than a mission statement. I say to people all the time who want to cut all services that you are talking about cutting food and medical to children. Taking care of our children is taking care of our future. Not sure how we actually accomplish eliminating child poverty.

The MODA modules by UNICEF offer a concrete, tractable and socially relevant answer to this. I'm not sure that "sustainability" enters the question so directly, and anyways, are you talking about the environment or budget rationalization?

Dear @Nathan, I was not so aware of UNICEF MODA modules. Thanks. I will attach link to! It may be very good resource for the followers of this thread!

http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/710

There are updated versions, but I think the idea is that they should be easily adaptable to national priorities.

Of course, but I was surprised about strategy for Europe!!! What do you think about  my dear fellows Europeans!? :)

Dear Ljubomir, if it was the only reason to be surprised about strategy for Europe ...

I agree with you Sribas and I think most would also agree that there are many problems with the US 1.25 pp a day metric despite its value as a rallying point. Child poverty has relevance not just to the poverty goals within the SDGs but also those related to inequality, income, economic activity, climate change, economic development and several others. A deeper look at how child poverty can be recreated generationally would suggest that we need to take a dyamic and lifecycle approach to the new goals being proposed and the interlinkages as well as the differentiated vulnerabilities that exist within the average household.

Addressing the child poverty in the new sustainable development goals (Post-2015) reflects child in developing countries, with highlights on how lack of transparency, insufficient accountability, and corrupt government officials will increase social wastage and distort economic and service delivery outcomes.

Shleifer, Andrei and Vishny, Robert W., “Corruption” (1993) 108 Quarterly Journal of Economics, p.599

That is true dear @Krishnan! Corruption is the issue related to poverty! To End Poverty, You Have to End Corruption! "The effects of corruption are personal and they are devastating. Corruption leaves children without mothers, families without healthcare, people without food, the elderly without security, and businesses without capital"!

Child labour perpetuates illiteracy, poverty and corruption....!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huguette-labelle/to-end-poverty-you-have-t_b_4396930.html

http://www.transparency.org/news/feature/ending_corruption_to_end_poverty

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/281292/child-labour-perpetuates-illiteracy-poverty.html

In my opinion, child poverty cannot be separated from general conditions of poverty of a poulation group or a country including the economic, industrial or agricultural development, the state of education system, the social dialogue, the organization of the health system and the choices and quality of politicians.

A country is also constrained by its geographical location, climate, ressources, the distribution of population (city,rural)...many different situations that determine specific solutions to the mentioned problem.

However, I do not think it's possible to change the current poverty afflicting so many chidren in the world's nations (developing or developed countries) if there is not a huge effort for more equitable distribution of wealth and/or to prioritize economic, political or health choices. What do the Nations, especially those who rule the world (and those who dream to be like them) want for Humanity in 50 years ? this must also involve international organizations (UNO,WHO,etc.).

On children health, I find it is necessary to associate the general public health policy and community health actions that involve people in solving  their specific needs (helping them to become designer, to realize and evaluate actions).

Finally, if we want to solve these serious problems of poverty that destroyed the destiny of Humanity, it seems to me that in general, we must stop thinking we act for the poor, to work with them.

The world is changing rapidly in the current phase of globalization, and development co-operation is part of this transformation.

Many things have changed since 2000, launch of the Millennium Development Goals (Millennium Development Goals). The international debate is in full swing.

It is to establish an agenda of priority and, consequently, commitments for the future of bilateral and multilateral development cooperation, in the vicinity of the impending deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (2015).

National consultations on 'Post-2015 Development Agenda underway in more than 70 countries. The United Nations Development Group has organized a 'package' of 11 thematic consultations on conflict and fragility, education, environmental sustainability, governance, growth and employment, health, hunger, food and nutrition, inequality, population dynamics, energy, and water.

Excellent all purpose, as the word to the facts?

I am in full agreement with you Francesca.

Education is vital in the elimination of child poverty for the achievement of UN Post 2015 Development Agenda transformative shifts. This goes beyond ensuring the right to education is fulfilled by children through the provision of affordable learning in countries where poverty is an important factor. Child poverty may also be reflected where children are excluded and marginalised, as a result of their ethnicity and/or the socioeconomic status of the families to which they belong in developed democracies. See Items 24 & 25 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/CERD.C.GBR.CO.18-20.

That's entirely true Ade. Education is a major target for intervention in developping countries.

The importance of targets on prioritizing and accelerating progress for the poorest and most disadvantaged children, with targets and indicators that measure progress within and across countries and track equity gaps.

Recognizing social protection systems for all in addressing child poverty; referencing the rate of exclusive breastfeeding and growing challenges of overweight children under the child nutrition target; including targets on reducing neo-natal and under-five mortality rates; including boys and men in promoting and achieving gender equality; emphasizing the need for universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in households, schools and health facilities; dedicating public investments in climate change adaptation to directly benefit children; and refining Proposed Goal 16 on peace to include universal access for children to independent justice systems with child-friendly processes.

http://www.unicef.org/post2015/files/Post_2015_OWG_review_CR_FINAL.pdf

An excellent point Sribas and one that gets us away from only focus on aggregate household improvements without also ensuring that people within the household are also doing better. I am not sure if the goals are quite that specific in terms of that level of scale but in the indicators, monitoring and evaluation aspects i expect they will and can be. I expect UNICEF and other including UNDP to be big voices in support of ensuring that child poverty and other instances of intra-household poverty are not forgotten or ignored. As Krishnan notes, there is a lot we know on how to tackle thison and I would agree with the others that with education at the core, we stand a good chance of eliminating it. 

Accountability and monitoring are key to the successful achievement of the UN Post 2015 Development Goals.  Sovereign states should progressively realise state obligations which respect, protect and fulfil the universal human rights of vulnerable groups including children. Child poverty e.g. in western developed nations such as the UK is empirical evidence of their failure to do so.

Child stunting, child hunger and child poverty are further major moral and developmental challenges that must be decisively resolved by all societies beyond 2015. The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN)vii Initiative is a central effort to achieve this – one of the major means by which countries can complete the unmet commitments made under MDG 1. 

- The post-2015 world can only be considered “A World Fit for Children” if we collectively ensure that children everywhere are safe from violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect. The protection of children should be an integral part viii of the Post-2015 Agenda – and is a sine qua non for just and sustainable future development. 

http://www.unicef.org/post2015/files/Post_2015_Key_Messages_V07.pdf

Thank you very much krishnan for the link proposed to remember us Key points to manadge actions for children protection. 

UNICEF's report on child poverty - Important, shocking, but lacking!has just released an interesting report on child poverty during the Great Recession. The report’s results have been reported widely and are distressing. It shows that since 2008 2.6 million children in rich countries have sunk below the poverty line. In 23 of the 41 countries analysed, child poverty has jumped since 2008. In Ireland, Croatia, Latvia, Greece and Iceland rates rose by over 50%.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/10/unicefs-report-child-poverty

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_76447.html

Very interesting Ljubomir...the economic crisis is not good for the weakest particularly the younger (but also older, women or less educated)... The more you are powerful and rich the more you become rich and powerful but the more you are weak and poor and the more you become poor and weak...

Native north "American " before invasion were economical whery strong , in today's live-style lots of native Americans life's is in economical weak position out any possibles of imprufment

This is about children's poverty in Serbia! Poverty in the eyes of children!

"One of the most vulnerable groups in Serbia is Roma children. Poverty has many faces. For jobless families it means no food on the table, for refugees no place to live and discrimination, for children from remote villages - hours of walking to the nearest school, and for children with disabilities, isolation and the impossibility of ever going outside...

"Poverty is not simply lack of money, food and housing. It means no access to education and health care, social exclusion and discrimination – for whatever reason, be it nationality, refugee status or disability. It is also the absence of any cultural or sport activities," says UNICEF Project Officer Oliver Petrovic. Poverty is a denial of human rights and human dignity.  

"Poverty is the key problem for children in Serbia, with 800,000 children living at or below the poverty line,"

For the first time, children in Serbia have had their say in the creation of a government strategy, one of great importance -- how to struggle with increased poverty..."

http://www.unicef.org/serbia/reallives_12462.html