As my conversation partner, a
teacher in the Dominican Republic, is having a very busy week I will post her
thoughts on poverty when she is able to get them to me! In the meantime I will
be researching child poverty in Egypt as I have a student from Egypt in my
class this year!
One section
in this report, Child Poverty and
Disparities in Egypt: Building the Social Infrastructure for Egypt’s Future, deals
with how children in Egypt perceive poverty (UNICEF, 2010). When I saw this in
the table of contents I immediately went to this page as I always want to hear
how children think when it comes to difficult topics. According to the article,
children in Egypt think of poverty as “having parents who are unemployed and
lacking income; living in a mud house; not being able to go to school or
hospital when sick; being separated from friends; and not being given the right
to be heard and participate in decision making” (UNICEF, 2010).
Another
insight from this article was that 16.3 million people in Egypt were living in
poverty in 2008-2009. Most of the income for people in Egypt is from working,
but there are also cash transfers which can include government pensions, as
well as private monetary transfers. Some people are also getting income from agriculture
as well, although this is only less than 23% of people. People living in
poverty in Egypt represent 21.6 % of the population, however they are only
receiving 7.5% of the income of the country (UNICEF, 2010).
Education
for young children has been on the rise in Egypt. In 2008, 91% of children of
the primary grades were enrolled in school (UNICEF, 2010). There is a slight
difference in the gender equality for those children as 90% of girls are
enrolled and 92% of boys are enrolled in primary school. This changes as
children enter secondary school with 86% of boys being enrolled and only 79% of
girls being enrolled.
The
statistics provided show that there are differences not only for education by
age but also by gender. This represents one of the ways that children in Egypt perceive
poverty- not being able to go to school. Income is another type of poverty, and
one that children recognize, and unemployment rate of 10.6% in 2008 (UNICEF,
2010). The most helpful insight from this article was learning what children
think about poverty. Their thoughts are true and they relate to their own
lives. I wonder if I asked this same question to children in my school, what
they would say about poverty.
References
United Nations Children’s Fund. (2010). Child poverty and disparities in Egypt: Building the social
infrastructure for Egypt’s future. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Egypt_English_Fullreport_Childpovert.pdf
