And there goes, the CHILDHOODS of all the children who don't have the resources like those children who were born to better-to-do-homes, and in the cities…with a not-good-enough-beginning, nor the resources they required to get themselves out of the poverty-stricken means, this is, doomed to be that, never-ending, vicious cycle for sure! This is, a VICIOUS cycle of poverty, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
As the Next Generations Grow Up, They Kept Doing the Low-Paying Manual Labor Work, Marrying Early, Becoming a Vicious Cycle
"I'm illiterate, how can I accompany or help the children in their studies, review their assignments for them?", an elderly grandmother, Lui looked at her grandson, sitting in front of his desk, told helplessly. Based off of the statistics by the Taiwan Funds for Children & Families, the passing down of poverty-stricken means to the younger generations, is increasing by the years, in 2022, there were close to twelve-percent of the families who'd been assisted by the foundation with the previous generations who are also, low-income or middle-to-low income, it's an increase of 2.7-percent from 2017. The social workers working directly with these families are witnessing the "mothers of the cases" becoming "grandmothers of the cases", all three generations are receiving assistance from the foundation, with no way out of getting stuck in poverty.
Grandma Lu's son divorced early on, and worked long-term up north, last year, her son was diagnosed with stage three nasopharyngeal carcinoma, could no longer work, although the families qualified for low-income assistance, but, the measly assistance couldn't pay for the burdensome medical bills, "I'd told my son, don't give me any money, just take care of yourself!", and, normally, it'd been up to the elderly woman, raising her own two grandsons, living off of government assistance, and what she could get paid, for stringing up the oysters.
The Grandparents Were Oyster Farmers, the Fifth-Grade Eldest Boy Helped Out, Strung Up Ten Stacks of Oysters, Made Only $350N.T.s a Day
It is nothing easy, stringing together the oysters, Grandma Lu is aging, and can only string about ten per day, making the measly $350N.T.s, plus the government retirement funds of a little over $6,000N.T. per month, $3,000N.T. in scholarship funds by the foundation, that would be, the total income of the household per month. Of their two grandsons, the older, in fifth grade, worked as a child dishwasher to help make ends meet, and at the same time, he'd had to look after his own grandfather who'd had a stroke; the third grade younger brother had been diagnosed with learning disabled, and couldn't catch up to the classes in school.
those living in poverty are decreasing, on average, but when you look closer, it showed, a different, picture! Graph from online
The supervising social worker of Chiayi's Taiwan Fund for Children & Families, Lu told, one of the key factors of the second, even the third generations, falling into that abyss of poverty is due to education. The economically tried are having it hard enough, living day to day, to some having ruined their health, the parents wouldn't find the time, nor energies, to look after their young, or the futures of their own, children. Without the viable skills, the children grow up, and can only continue to work the odds and ends, the low paying jobs as construction workers, or dishwashers, and they also have the higher chances of marrying young themselves too, before they are out of poverty, they'd had to, raise up the next generations, and this turned into, that, vicious cycle.
The Debts on Average for the Poverty Stricken Families, Over Millions of Dollars Each
The children in the poverty stricken families also had to deal with the debts. Based off of the surveys, forty-two percent of these families owed the debts, with $1.02 million N.T.s per household on average, leaving the debts to the future generations.
The principal of Wulu Elementary School in Taidong, Kuo had taught in Taidong for thirty years, the elementary school she was a principal was very far off the grids, with the other campus, there were only, a total of fifty-nine students in all. Although the number of students aren't many, Kuo told, that in her five years of working, she'd handled the high-risk families that outnumbered the total of high risk families in her past twenty-five years as an educator, the problems that came hand-in-hand with poverty include: domestic violence, sexual assault, neglect, etc., etc., etc.
Lacking the Care & Concerns Long-Term, the Children Lost the Desires and the Know-How to Chase Their Own Dreams
Kuo noted, that the children in these lesser regions are faced with "the unforeseeable poverty of their futures" now. Poverty doesn't just come from the lacking of money, the bigger problem is that kids growing up in these dysfunctional families, lacked the attention, the positive adult support, not enough resources, and that sense of identification of the self. The parents are constantly bombarded with the trials of every day living, they can't lead their young to imagine a better, brighter future, the children would feel, "I'm going to end up like my parents", lost their desires to chase their own dreams, and as they became grown and parents, they will be, just as, unstable as their own parents were.
children growing up in conditions of poverty...photo from online
The supervising manager of social workers of the Taidong chapter of Taiwan Funds for Children & Families, Lin told, even if the children left home, start their new lives, they normally gave in the demands of the realities, to care for their own families of origin, the debts, the economic difficulties, forced to give up their dreams or academic careers, and returned back into, that poverty vicious cycle again.
Kuo used herself as an example, she was raised in poverty stricken home too, but, because of how simple the world was when she was growing up, she still believed that she could, change her own, future.
She said, the society right now is competitive, filled with the differences, causing the gap between the rich and the poor maximize, the children would feel self-abased easily, "Sometimes all that's needed is a clean set of P.E. uniform, to give the positive energies that the children needed, to help them realize their potentials, of being better than what they'd been, given."
normally end up...poverty stricken in their adulthood years, without the proper education, to get themselves out! Photo from online
And so, this is, truly bad and sad, to see how these children, lost ALL hopes for a better life for themselves, simply because they are born in the less economically capable backgrounds, and education IS the key, to get these kids out of poverty stricken life, but, these children won't have the extravagance, to focus on their studies, as they're already, having enough, finding the foods to fill their stomachs with (first level of Hierarchy of Needs???), a steady roof over their shoulders (second level???), how can they, possibly, go for anything higher, when they'd been born, STUCK, in the poverty stricken means.
The only way to change this is through education, and surely, there are now, these programs that are, available for the kids in these lesser regions (i.e. scholarship funds, programs), but, these kids are basically too tried by their ordinary day-to-day living, to have the minds for, everything that's, not what their, basic, living needs…
