How Does Poverty and Unemployment Affect the Community?

The answer to, “How does poverty and unemployment affect the community?” is somewhat cyclical. According to the UN, “Unemployment and underemployment lies at the core of poverty. For the poor, labor is often the only asset they can use to improve their well-being.”[1] However, the jobs available to the impoverished generally do not pay well.

Many of the poorest of the poor have not had opportunities in education or training, so the main jobs available to them consist of menial labor in fields or factories. These jobs are often not steady or reliable, and even working long, hard hours, people still do not earn enough money to provide for their families. So, poverty is caused by unemployment, but unemployment or underemployment are also caused by poverty.

GFA World and other organizations seek to break this self-perpetuating cycle by creating employment opportunities. These could include agriculture and rural development, skills advancement, training and promoting self-employment.[2] One strategy GFA uses is giving income-generating gifts, such as sewing machines, farm animals or bicycles, to impoverished families.

Sabrang was the only son in a poor family and a member of the small village church. His parents spent long hours laboring in the fields each day, but the family still had financial struggles. They prayed that God would provide a way to overcome this poverty that trapped them. God answered their prayers. With the help of Christmas gift donations from believers around the world, GFA was able to give Sabrang a new sewing machine. He and more than 20 other recipients—mostly unemployed women living in poverty—received the special gifts. Sabrang said, “Now I can start a small tailoring shop. That way I can help meet my family’s needs and also help meet the clothing needs of our community.”[3]

Sabrang’s story is just one example of how GFA’s income-generating gifts lift families out of poverty. GFA provides sewing classes to each recipient of a sewing machine to make sure they are fully equipped to put their gift to good use. With a sewing machine and a little training, the effect is life-changing. The work is steady and reliable, and from their own home, families are able to earn extra money to get out of debt, pay for food and use for other expenses.[4]


Click here, to read more about this article.

Click here, to read more blogs in Gospel for Asia.Com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Is the Poverty Cycle?

Image
The question, “What is the poverty cycle, or cycle of poverty?” is one that must be answered to address and end poverty across the globe. Put simply, the term refers to the trend where the vicious effects of poverty and deprivation pass from one generation to the next, with no seeming way out. [1] Someone born into poverty has fewer opportunities than their wealthier peers. They must focus on survival above all, leaving little room for anything else. One illness can wipe out a family’s savings, but the unclean water sources and lack of protection available to them invite sickness. Walking to retrieve water can be time-consuming yet must be a daily priority, and many children must work alongside their parents for the family to afford food. Thus, school is often a far-off dream. Having had few opportunities to acquire skills, the kids grow up to repeat the cycle of poverty with their own children. This story was all too familiar for Nalah. His father worked in the tea fields, trying to e...
Read more

Our Attitude Towards Suffering

Image
In 2 Timothy 2:3, the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy, “Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” Everyone, at some point or another, faces suffering, the soldier especially. However, it is not so much what we suffer, but how we suffer that matters. The way our heart responds to suffering is crucial, because by it we will either advance or become stagnant. To suffer like a good soldier is to willingly endure all for the sake of the call. To suffer like a bad soldier is to grumble when difficult situations and hardship arise. Instead of throwing our lives into what God has called us to, we can try to hold on to our lives, wanting to get away with as little suffering as possible, paying as little price as possible. We have forgotten that we are under the orders of our Master and that we willingly gave up our lives. Christ’s Example of Suffering Christ lived with the expectation of suffering. Throughout the Gospels, He repeatedly referred to ...
Read more

Where Can I Learn How to Break the Cycle of Poverty?

Image
There are many methods for how to break the cycle of poverty which one can learn about. From education assistance to income-generating gifts like sewing machines or farm animals, there is hope for families who have been poor for generations. GFA World works in communities in all these ways through sponsorships and gift distributions, and one by one, we see lives changed as families escape poverty. Raina’s life had been dominated by poverty. She was part of a highly underprivileged people group that faced discrimination and deprivation from others in the region. Despite that, Raina had been able to attend school up until tenth grade, but she discontinued her education when it became too much for her parents to afford. Rather than receiving her certificates of completion, she had to join her parents in the field to earn money to put food on the table. After she married Ander, Raina continued to work in the fields to supplement his income with her own. In search of better job opportunitie...
Read more