Examples of Generational Poverty

Poverty is often passed down from one generation to the next. Here are some examples of generational poverty.

Sumana’s parents struggled to provide for their seven children.1 They even uprooted their family and moved to the city in search of better wages to give their children a better future. Her parents worked long hours in a carpet factory, but it still wasn’t enough.

As one of the eldest, Sumana dropped out of school to help provide for her younger siblings. It was one less tuition fee and one more income as Sumana joined her parents at the carpet factory, giving up her dream of gaining an education and attaining a better future for herself.

Sadly, it’s a choice many impoverished families, especially in developing countries, are forced to make. According to a GFA World special report, many such families “are so poor and often in so much debt that they are not likely to recover from either without enlisting their children as breadwinners. They can see no way out of their poverty, so they sacrifice the future (the education and success of their children) on the altar of the immediate (survival now).”2

As a result, 160 million children are involved in child labor.3 These children rarely complete their education, limiting their future job opportunities and chances for breaking out of poverty.4 And thus the cycle continues.

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