Poverty: a harsh reality

As I sat with a friend at Brazilian Coffee, a high-end cafe on one of the nicest streets in Cochabamba, she was recounting a visit to a Bolivian friends house. She explained that his family's house took up most of a block and was comparable to mansions and huge houses in the States--a huge kitchen with very new, modern gadgets, an enormous living room with amazing furniture, a pool and hot tub, and tennis courts! As we discussed this lifestyle, which is odd and less than unheard of here, I realized this was also foreign to me in the States.

While walking around Cochabamba and other Bolivian cities I have had the opportunity to visit, poverty and the affects of it ae so apparent. Poverty is a daily reality for millions in Bolivia, the poorest country in South America. I have been looking into facts and statistics about Bolivia's distribution of wealth and poverty, and many I found are older, but I believe, not much has changed. According to the World Development Indicators in 2000, those of the lower class owned less than ten percent of the country's wealth, while those in the elite, upperclass possessed close to fifty percent. And, in 2007, the income share held by the lowest twenty percent was under three percent. What a difference! While the guy my friend and I were discussing goes home to a mansion and cars and pools, others live on the streets, begging for money and food, struggling to survive.

The lack of money leads to other devastating characteristics of a society. For example, in 2009, Bolivia's infant mortality rate of children under the age of five was over fifty deaths per 1,000 live births. This may not seem like a big deal, but this small South American country has the highest infant mortality rate in the Americas. Even more deaths than Haiti and the Dominican Republic! Also, Bolivians have much shorter life expectancy rates due to poverty and stress, unhealthy water and third-world medical care.

According to UNICEF, in 2002, 59% of the 8,274, 325 lived in conditions of poverty--no running water or electricity, no plumbing and little food-- and 24.4% lived in extreme poverty--no home, malnourished families. Those who are affected by poverty are the Indigenous and those living in rural areas, and within these two groups, women, children, and adolescents are the most vulnerable. I feel honored to be working with two of these groups, and many of the Ninos con Valor children are of Indigenous descent, grew up on the streets and very rural communities, lived through violence and abuse caused by poverty and its affects-stress, drug and alcohol abuse, a lack of education...

I could write and write about the facts and statistics that I came upon that presented the startling reality of poverty within Bolivia. While I read and think about this, I am blessed to understand that, in the world, there is something bigger than me--the girls and little ones I work with who dream of a better life than they were dealt, those who struggle daily to put food on the table and provide a better life for their families, those who have no access to water and plumbing, those who stand up in the name of justice and equality, those who have suffered and still continue to push forward, and those who have lost their lives to poverty and injustice. I will forever remember that I am struggling and working alongside those in Bolivia who hope for a much better future, and that there is something bigger than me!