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PHILANTHROPY
Poverty in Atlanta: You Can Help |
| Written by Kayrita M. Anderson and Barbara J. Mosacchio |
| February 24, 2010 |
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 You've grimaced at the images of sex trafficking, AIDS, lack of access to basic health care, and unsafe living conditions. You feel the pain of women in developing countries who aren’t educated, who have babies on their laps with sad and hungry faces, and whose men squander the family money and then beat them up.
It’s really hard to believe that kind of poverty still exists in our world today, but it does. Unfortunately, you don’t have to go halfway around the world to see it up close. Those Women Live Right Here in Your Own Backyard You’ve probably driven by her at the bus stop so many times that you may not even notice her anymore. She’s not very unusual. She’s a very young mom with a baby stroller, a backpack, a grocery bag of diapers, and a loaf of bread. She looks like she should be cruising the mall with her girlfriends or finishing a term paper. But she hasn’t finished high school, and she’s an unmarried, teen mom. Her Child in the Stroller has a 78% Likelihood of Growing Up in Poverty - Unless You Help Her to Break the Cycle The grandmother in line at the grocery store has a bag of rice and beans and a few other groceries. She’s one of the almost 6,000 Atlanta grandparents raising their grandchildren. She’ll forego her blood pressure medicine to make sure that they eat together as a family every night. She’ll sacrifice her late life retirement to make sure that they have opportunities to be educated and disciplined. She’s seen a lot of change in her life. She knows that the opportunities are there if she can help keep her grandchildren away from the predators of illiteracy, crime, and poor health that are lurking out there. She is fiercely protective. She Believes You Can Help Break the Cycle of Poverty for Them Peer into the eyes of that teenage girl with too much lipstick hanging out in front of the motel. She’s fleeing a bad home and a bad community and running into the arms of those who sell her into a different kind of oppression. She’s just one of more than 350 girls who will be commercially sexually exploited in Georgia this month. Without Some Help from People Like You, She May Never Escape this Life. Her Children Will Repeat the Cycle. These women represent the face of generational poverty in Atlanta - something that is, sadly, prevalent in our great and prosperous city. The census reports that more than 200,000 women live below the poverty level in the five-county Atlanta area – that’s Turner Field filled up four times. Imagine that. More than 2,500 children wake up in Atlanta every morning without a place to call home. |
More Resources:
- The New American Woman Wears the Purse in the Family
- Shoe CEO Quickly Becomes Sole Owner
- Accounting ‘Angels’ to the Rescue
- Charting the Political Landscape
- Tips for Selling Your Gold
- Uphill Struggle for Afghan Women
- Designing Clothes for Tall Women
- Laura Bush’s Chief of Staff
- How to Deal with Negative Coworkers
- Is Technology Killing your Social Life?
- Rocky Mountain High
- Female Race Car Drivers
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