Poverty is something that is always misunderstood and is always perceived as something that it isn’t by those that don’t truly know what it is, or it could even mean that poverty is a dark and dangerous place to live in. Whatever your thoughts we are all in this together, to understand what poverty is and how it makes us feel.
Not everyone is willing to believe that poverty exists in the world and would prefer to live in a bubble of non existence. What if those people were to lose their safety net? Would they not end up in poverty themselves?
Have you ever felt as though you will never be happy again? To be able to get out of that black hole, that you will have to use a food bank, beg for food because you have no home or heaven forbid commit suicide because you have no further options left?
What happens when its payday and the bills come in and you have to pay the rent, council tax, gas, and electricity as well as do the food shop – which do you pay? Also what if little Louis needs new school shoes- you will have to make another sacrifice. That’s yet another debt to be in.
Together, ATD Fourth World and Thrive Teesside have spent the day trying to answer those questions but it isn’t something that can be done so easily. It’s not a case of trying to stop poverty altogether because that would be impossible to do but more a case of trying to find solutions to the problems.