Gospel for Asia

Globally, around 736 million people live in extreme poverty. They often lack sufficient housing, hygiene, health care, and education. While the trend is going in the right direction, 1 in 10 people are still left below the extreme poverty indicator of earning $1.90 per day. These “chronically poor” are mainly found in South Asia 1 —where GFA World, a poverty relief organization is active. How can you help? Check out these examples of how GFA World is helping families in Asia and Africa: Animals Two chickens can make the difference to help a family out of extreme poverty. The eggs can be sold or hatched to provide ongoing income for the family. A lamb, cow, or goat can provide milk for drinking or to sell and dung for fuel or fertilizer. Work Supplies When a woman is gifted a sewing machine and some training, she is equipped for a new career as a tailor. Or when someone is given a pull-cart to make selling their vegetables more efficient, lives are changed. Educational Opportunities Per

When you donate to poverty organizations that give income-generating gifts, you are making a lasting impact. These gifts provide an opportunity for a person struggling with poverty to have income in the future. The simple gift of an income-generating animal or item can be a big turning point for a family. Oftentimes, a simple gift enables families to afford education, nutritious food, health care, and other necessary items. Animals Cows, goats, pigs, lambs, and chickens are helpful income-generating gifts. For example, cows produce calves, which can be sold. They also provide milk for a family to drink or sell to neighbors. Cows can also help cultivate and fertilize their fields. Sewing Machines When a family is gifted with a sewing machine and trained in tailoring, it opens a myriad of income-generating possibilities. The gift offers more than skills, it offers hope. Pull Carts This may seem like a simple gift, but it can be life-changing. When a gardener needs to transport produce t

GFA World, one of the organizations that help poverty, has used local workers instead of foreigners for over 40 years. This proves to be an enormous advantage for a myriad of reasons. Locals are Free to Serve Since we have historically worked in Asian countries, it is important to note that over 85 percent of Asian countries don’t allow western missionaries to serve freely. Our local workers aren’t held to this restriction. These faithful people serve without interruption. Locals are One with the People In the eyes of the local people, national workers don’t represent a foreign land or strange religion. National workers are one of them. They know the language and the best ways to communicate effectively. They are sensitive to the needs of their neighbors and family. Locals are Able to Help Local workers are available to serve in a variety of locations—slums, villages, cities, etc. They are trained to readily see the needs of the people, step in with solutions and help. Locals are Cost

There are many poverty organizations tackling the causes and results of poverty around the world. These organizations focus on different missions and purposes. While the basic definition of extreme poverty is earning less than $1.90 a day, 1 the economic definition is only a portion of the equation. Many organizations that help poverty also help people overcome spiritual poverty, educational poverty and generational poverty to name just a few. What should you investigate when considering which poverty organizations to support? Here are some questions to ask, followed by GFA World’s response as an example of how a poverty relief organization might respond: In what regions of the world does the organization work? Do I have a heart for a particular region of the world? Do I want to support a poverty organization near me? Consider whether you’d like to support organizations that help with poverty in your local community or one that concentrates on a specific region of the world. GFA Wor

While studying the effects of poverty on child development, it is interesting to see how poverty impacts the entire person. It isn’t simply a need for material things such as food, water and shelter. Poverty impacts a child holistically. An exhaustive list of the effects of poverty would be volumes long, but here is a summary of some key ways poverty impacts child development: Poverty impacts cognitive development. Studies have shown that children who are born into poverty enter school with lower readiness scores. They often have fewer motor skills and lack the attentiveness necessary for school. In many areas around the world, parents cannot afford to enroll their children in school, so cognitive development is exasperated even further. In some areas, school tuition is provided free of charge by the government, but the families are still unable to pay for supplies, uniforms and other requirements. Poverty impacts physical health. Poor nutrition and a lack of food security, byproducts

Poverty impacts education in a major way. An exhaustive answer to “How does poverty affect education?” would be volumes long, but to summarize, here are four main areas below. A report in 2014 estimated that 263 million children and teens were not attending school. More than 70 percent of the out-of-school children who should have been in primary or secondary education lived in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. 1 Even though many families know that education is key to escaping poverty, it is often out of their reach. Many families in poverty are unable to afford to send their kids to school. In many areas, school costs money for enrollment, uniforms and other supplies. This is a significant expense for families who are having difficulty meeting the basic needs of each person, such as food, water and shelter. When children attend school, they are unable to work to help provide for the needs of the family, which impoverished children may be forced to do. Those children miss the oppor

Education poverty , also called learning poverty , is defined this way by the World Bank : “Learning poverty means being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10.” 1 According to that indicator, 53 percent of children in low- and middle-income countries “cannot read and understand a simple story by the end of primary school. In poor countries, the level is as high as 80 percent.” 2 It is estimated that over 260 million children are not even in school. This statistic will greatly impact the future economy of these communities. It is almost impossible for a person to break the cycle of poverty when he or she is not educated or is without the crucial skills of reading, writing and basic math. Educational poverty also impacts other aspects of a child’s life: Emotional development is often impacted. As children grow and attend school, they learn how their emotions work and impact others. Relational growth is impacted. Without consistent schooling, it becomes harder for children

The world experiences a self-perpetuating problem with poverty and education. In a sense, it’s a “chicken and egg” type of situation. Which came first: low education or poverty? When parents are stuck in a cycle of generational poverty, they often raise their children without education. Sometimes they can’t afford to send their kids to school or they don’t see the benefit of education in their daily struggle to survive. Likewise, when a person doesn’t get an education, poverty is often the result. For that reason, education is a major key to ending the cycle of poverty, but, unfortunately, poverty is still one of the largest obstacles to education. In order for this self-perpetuating problem of poverty and education to cease, there needs to be something that breaks the cycle. That’s where GFA World comes in! Dayita is a living example of the impact of poverty and education. Dayita, a mother of four children, lives in Asia. With her husband ill, she was forced to provide for her family

Widows’ legal rights are often disregarded. Widows are perceived as easy targets for exploitation in many countries, and destitution often follows. In many countries, particularly in Africa and Asia, widows experience significant legal issues that leave them stripped of their inheritance, their property rights and their social status. Addressing these systemic issues is vital to ensure that widows can live securely with dignity. World Bank Policy Reforms In seeking to mitigate the disadvantages widows experience, The World Bank lists important policy reforms that involve ownership of property, rights to inherit, the requirement for registration of customary marriages and widows’ pensions. Victoria Stanley, a World Bank land specialist, highlights how important it is to implement broad protective measures that ensure no one loses their home during times of crisis. She also calls for reform of inheritance laws and marital property regimes to facilitate more effective realization of women

Women around the world who are widowed often have the experience of grief and loss compounded by the cultural stigmas of widowhood. Widows are one of the most marginalized and outcast groups in many cultures, especially in Africa and Asia where they live under an avalanche of hardships and superstitions. Such societies force them into further isolation, often accompanied by the loss of basic rights that are essential to moving past their grief. In Nigeria, widows face dehumanizing rituals and accusations based on cultural beliefs. Some traditions ask women to take an oath to prove their innocence when their husband dies. Other cultural practices will keep a woman confined in mourning for long periods of time or make her drink water used to bathe the body of her late husband. [1] While hard to believe, practices like these are common. They undermine the dignity of widows and expose them to physical torture as well as psychological abuse. In Nepal, widows are often held responsible for t

The multifaceted challenges faced by widows are significant, both socially and economically, and often render these women marginalized, if not destitute. Losing a husband not only brings the anguish of loss and grief but can also begin a series of grinding miseries: eviction, the loss of all rights to property and even social stigma. The dire situation of a widow is compounded in Asia and Africa where cultural norms and economic insecurity make them particularly vulnerable. For example, widows in South Asia are often stigmatized and accused of causing their husbands’ deaths. They may be stripped of their land by their in-laws and thrown out of their homes. They cannot get access to education or employment and have very few means of supporting their own children. [1] In Africa, widows lose their property rights and are subject to dehumanizing rituals. Widows in Nigeria are stigmatized as witches and coerced into rites that falsely accuse them of being responsible for their situations,

Widowhood is a tragic experience that transcends all economic, political and geographical boundaries. The basic phenomenon can be defined as a situation that occurs when a woman has lost her husband to death and has not remarried. Still, the real life of a widow, meaning what their life is like after the loss of their husband, should be understood as a complex combination of emotional, social and economic difficulties of varying degrees that can also by accentuated by their culture and tradition. For example, in many regions, the cultural stigmas of widowhood is not merely about a state of loss or an emotional state of grieving and mourning. Widowhood is a new social identity that comes with immense stigma and discrimination. [1] Widows within parts of Asia, for example, are considered to be the primary reason for their husband’s death, regardless of the cause—and are therefore treated quite cruelly as undesirable. [2] Often, their families evict them, leaving them penniless, without