[Learn With Steem Journal- Sixth Edition] : Can We Help Africa Reduce Poverty Rate? (17th May,2022)
Hello Folks,
When a close person dies, you feel grief. And such moments could be so devastating and demoralizing that you may lose interest in things you love doing all the time.
I am just relating this out of the experience and if you have faced this before you will agree with me.
At Such points, you ask questions that make you look like a child and your attitude towards life and living begins to change gradually. Peace and happiness seem to be strange to you as your emotions banish them. You feel so empty and so much depressed.
This is what I can remember about my state when I lost a loved one in death two years ago.
And just for the record whether you’ve lost someone in death or not you feel grief almost on an everyday basis.
I know that different people grieve over different things. folks are in sorrow for one affliction or another.
It may be the loss of one’s job, like what happened during the Covid-19 era, it could be a case of separation or divorce, a state of poverty which I am going to talk much about it later, it could be a prolonged illness, issues of insecurity, crime, and violence.
And folks have many more reasons to mourn. Who is not in grief and someone around them is not?
Let me talk a little bit about Africa from my own point of view.
Africa is the continent of grief, grief over poverty. Last year when I was listening to one report from the UN, more than 25 percent of the world’s poor live in Africa, and poverty leads to hunger and malnutrition.
The question Now is Why is Africa the poorest continent?
One of the reasons is population growth. Africa has the highest population rate in the world. And this growth may continue to increase.
Why is Africa leading the rest of the world in population growth?
Many Africans live in the past, what’s that ?, For example, in the olden times, our forefathers here in Africa married up to 3 or 5 wives with each wife giving birth to a minimum of 4 children or more, which in total would be 20 children.
Unfortunately, most of these people were not doing anything for a living.
To them, children were a veritable asset. They were his human capital used for farming. In those days, success and wealth were measured by the number of barns they had and the quantity of yam in them.
So they gave birth to many children and used them as workers on the farm. This practice contributed to the high level of illiteracy in Africa.
But today many couples have left such beliefs and practices, Sadly, some still hold on to that and those ones holding on to that are more than the ones who are not giving birth to many children.
You must have your own tale to tell. A story of tears and sorrow brought about by your parents' having many children that they could care for.
Why is it that people who have not taken care of themselves invite more people into their life through birth? That’s the question I sometimes ask myself when I see how people give birth to kids and at the same time lack resources to take care of them.
Like I said earlier, I still see young couples who can hardly put food on their table let alone buy clothes for themselves that live in just a room without any facility still giving birth to children.
We see a family of eight in a single room without a toilet or a bathroom. What does it benefit a couple to bring even a child into the world when they have not taken care of themselves? This is what is going on in some parts of Africa, and I am writing this publication because I feel it’s one way to help my people reduce poverty.
One way I feel could help to eradicate poverty in Africa is to educate young folks on the dangers of irresponsible childbearing. That is why I am taking this time to talk about it here in this space.
The standard of living of many families in Africa is below the poverty line mainly because they have children they can’t care for. Here are questions you must ask yourself before you embark on giving birth to ONE child:
- Am I through with my basic education?
- Am I employed?
- How secure is my job?
- Can I conveniently afford three square meals daily?
- What is the quality of the meals I take?
- Do I have a decent apartment?
- What is the credit on my bank account?
- Can my financial resources take care of another person’s basic needs?
- Do I sometimes complain about money not being able to settle my wants and needs?
- Am I ready to take on additional responsibility and increase my bill by at least 50 percent?
If you and your spouse have three meals in a day, that amounts to 2,190 meals in a year. Mark up other expenses such as medicals, clothing entertainment for guests, and more. Are you conveniently paying these bills?
The reality is that an additional person, a child, brought into the family is certainly going to increase your expenses by at least 50 percent in addition to emotional investment.
It costs more to provide for a child than it takes to care for yourself. For instance, most parents are not in school and will not have to pay school fees.
Again, if for example, you earn 1000 steems in a month, and it adequately takes care of your expenses, you will be making a costly mistake to bring a child into your family without increasing your income by at least 50 percent.
Otherwise, you will be cheating yourself and short-change the child you brought forth. Children of these days are beginning to question the rationale behind their birth. “Did I ask you to give birth to me?” some ask parents who are struggling to provide for them.
Count the cost of bringing ONE child into the world and don’t repeat the same mistakes that your parents and grandparents made. Your decision to have a few or no children at all is just the beginning of successful and happy family life.
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Kemiskinan merupakan pekerjaan besar yang harus diselesaikan oleh hampir semua negara yang sedang berkembang. Untuk mengurangi kemiskinan, sumber daya manusia merupakan faktor penting yang harus terus ditingkatkan, kemudian pemerintah menciptakan lapangan kerja yang ideal, mendukung dan menjadikan sektor pertanian dan perkebunan sebagai landasan untuk meningkatkan Pertumbuhan ekonomi negara, mendorong lahirnya home idustri dan banyak hal yang dapat dilakukan mulai dari bawah.
Semoga hal ini dapat segera teratasi
Thank you very much for this great input. Ofcourse this can help reduce the amount of poverty in which humans are facing today in different locations.
This is an additional useful input to this article. Thank you very much
Wellcome bro... You always show your best.