'Poverty is the worst form of violence'

Where is the boundary of poverty?!

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According to the latest data in Croatia, the risk of poverty is about 20 percent. 4 million inhabitants live here, which would mean that about 800,000 people are on the verge of poverty or already living in misery. Every fifth resident does not have all the necessary for a decent life.
Compared to other European countries, Croatia is very high on the list of the poverty risk, and Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and some of the Baltic countries are also at the top.
It would be even harder if we mentioned some other parts of the world.

What does it mean to be poor?

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In Croatia, we often use a saying - 'The well-fed one does not believe the hungry one'.
That's the whole point.
Families that live in poverty are deprived of basic substantive rights, they can not pay for housing, so they end up living in cold and humid apartments. They do not know if they will end up on the street, and the biggest problem is the long-term exposure of children to poverty.
Adults may sometimes be responsible for the situation they are in, but children are not and should not be.
There is nothing that bothers me more, and an image I can not forget is when I see a hungry child in Africa. We throw away huge amounts of food, we spend money on nonsense, we don't eager for anything anymore... so, how can we watch such scenes? I do not know, it affects me a lot.
When I was in school we had a few students who couldn't afford to pay a trip, so we all collected money for them. Today, it seems to me that every second child has the same problem but want's to hide that from the rest of the class.
Long-term exposure to poverty can sometimes leave lasting consequences to a child.

What can we do?

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I'm not sure I have the answer to this question. I would like to hand this off to the politicians but they are not doing anything. Fighting against poverty should be a political decision. The world is full of goods, but for example, in our country, that can feed twenty million people, many are on the verge of hunger. Something's wrong!

Maybe the right question is, what can WE do?

We can look around. Try to help as much as we can. We can try not to support social exclusion of that people.
Lately, on a conference, I have met people that live in poverty and they shared their life story with me. I will never forget when a young man said - The family house was burned down, so I went with my parents to the shelter. People around me discarded me, I experienced disenchantment, insults, friends, and people I met did not understand that this could happen to them either. Yes, it can happen to everyone, how often have you read about some famous actor or singer that now lives on the edge of poverty.
Today that man I've met lives day by day, hoping that someday he would have the main human right - right to work. So, what we can do is not to judge those people but try to help them as much as we can.
Poverty is closely connected to unemployment so it is crucial to solve the problem from the very beginning.
In our country, some steps are taken, but they are very small. The new law is being prepared, in which beside the experts, people who have experienced or are still living in poverty should also be included. They could use their suggestions to help those who do not have similar problems to understand what they are most upset about and how the state can help them.

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