Poverty: A Hindrance in Learning by ren_ren

Learning is a continuous process of acquiring knowledge.It can be acquired at home, at the environment and at school.
Our home teaches us the right values and the importance of family. The environment teaches us the importance of social interaction. And the school teaches us academically and it also helps us to discover and to enhance our talents and inner abilities.It is an institution that will help us develop our future by practicing a field that we will be choosing.Everyone needs to learn and to explore. But how can this be possible if the majority of the society is incapable of doing so? How can they learn if they are forced to stay and work out at the street? How can they learn if they are sent to jail instead of school? And how can they learn to love and give respect of the people around them and of the environment itself if they had been a victim of discrimination and of neglect? Should we put the blame on the government? Or should we blame ourselves?

I am a second psychology student and as a student of this field, I am able to observe my environment and I am very much affectted with children who are not given a chance to learn properly by all the means that I have mentioned earlier. It hurts me, as young mom, to see those children out of the streets to earn money instead of earning the values of education. They chose to be in the streets to earn and to have a meal to serve at the table. How can they go to school if their stomachs are empty all the time? Instead of paying for the tuition fees, they would rather buy food to feed their aching stomachs. Instead of studying, they would rather choose to work and find means of living. For them, it is a waste of time attending school. The environment on the other hand is full of selfishness, madness and discrimination. The people do not want to help because they have been judgmental of the situation that those children have. A street child who enters a jeep for example, who ask money from the passengers, will hear a lot of hurtful words, words of discrimination. Instead of praying for them,we get mad at them. It is not their fault to be in that situation. If they only have an option, they would not be in that position.

As a student, I am thankful that we have this outreach program to reach out to those children. For now, it is the only thing that I can do. Someday I would like to have a better chance or opportunity to help them especially those children.

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Ren_ren is a woman with a broad mind and a brave heart. A woman of gentle touch.