Poverty Unit

This unit I learned about the issue of poverty. I learnt that it is a cycle that repeats itself and is hard to break. Whilst learning about poverty we thought of ways we could help people along the way with things like: Change for Change, and by supporting NGO's such as Kiva Loans.

One of the activities I think I benefitted from the most was the "Defining Types of Poverty: Absolute and Relative". It helped me learn about the different degrees of poverty, and their definitions. It also helped me understand how big of a problem this is in the world. This was most relevant to me because I learnt what could do to make a change in someone's life. For example: donating to NGO's, raising awareness and raising money to donate. This lesson inspired me to make a change in the community and help the world get over poverty with coming up with inventions to benefit all.

The second activity I think I benefitted from was the ""Spent" Simulation". Spent made me realise and experience how hard it was to live in just relative poverty. It was very hard and I had to make a lot of sacrifices to help me live through out the whole game. The game showed me how much stress is on one person, how much strain it puts on them to make simple decisions. This made me think, "Why is there so many people that have to suffer this fate?". So that is my driving motivation to help.

The final activity that I learn from was the "Kiva Loan". The Kiva loan showed me, even the littlest amount of money from me can change someone's life and they could return the favour. Kiva loans have a great system to help people get back on their feet with $25 donated by each person. Then when they are able to pay back, they do; and this program is an organisation that is reliable so that people can help the organisation or the people that need the money. This is relevant because it makes me have trust that they will get on their way and pay off their dues to have better life, knowing that I have done this I hope it makes people join on the bandwagon and be inspired to help too.

I learnt a lot from this unit and it has inspired me to put myself out there and start to help. I learnt the main causes of poverty that lead to the endless possibilities to help the world and make it so that we can all live in houses with our basic needs. Starting off by donating to good causes and making me not take everything I have for granted, because in a blink of an eye all I have could be gone.