On October 17th, both Poverty Groups were lucky enough to sit in on a conference at the United Nations for the Eradication of Poverty. This visit was very early in the year, so we were yet to decide what our specific topic was going to be and were mainly interested in learning the basics of worldwide poverty. We were looking to learn about poverty as a whole, so that we could understand what the poverty level truly is.
Once we got to the conference room, we we unsure as to what to expect. There were big rolling chairs, and microphones attached to the desks in front of them. Atop of each desk was a monitor that read, #endpoverty. I found this powerful and inspiring because it was said so simply. Our goal should be to end poverty. Whether it’s in only New York, or worldwide, even ending one family’s life in poverty is worth fighting for. It reminded me that while poverty is a very complex ideal, there is a simply put solution. What really struck me about the conference is when a young girl and a man spoke. They shared their experiences in poverty with us, and it was really powerful to here about what living in poverty meant to them, because it was less about physical standards, but what the individuals went through as a result of them being impoverished.
The girl mainly talked about how she had to switch schools because her best friend told everyone in the school that she lived in a shelter. Because of this, people started teasing the girl who came to speak. This showed us a different side of the poverty that we had been learning about. We had been looking at what rich people had written about the experiences of the people in poverty. But, at this conference we heard the voices of the people and heard their experiences directly. This is probably the main thing that I took away from the conference. I had a different feeling that was gearing me toward wanting to interview people about their experiences in poverty, and lead our teach in from a civilian point of view, instead of using statistics and stories written by people who couldn’t relate to being impoverished.
