#4 My Final Summary/Reaction

Throughout this semester is was definitely able to gain a better understanding of what poverty really is. By researching and learning a good deal of information, I can definitely say that I have gained a great deal of knowledge on the subject. Not only am I more informed, but I can definitely say that I now know more about what people are going through and can put myself in their shoes. When I got the results of my poverty survey, I wasn't at ll surprised to find out that my hypothesis had been correct. I had guessed that majority of people really did not know a great deal about poverty at all. My questions were more fact based than other people who gave surveys because I really wanted to see the percentage of people who did not know specific information in order to be able to prove my point.For example, when asked " What percentage of humanity lives on less than $10 a day?", 64% of the people I surveyed answered incorrectly. Some other things that more than half of the people surveyed got incorrect were " How many children die each day due to poverty? and "What is the poverty line for a family of 4?". I think that many people have a basic idea about poverty but don't really know the specifics. After this semester of research I am happy to be more informed about poverty so that I can help broaden other people's knowledge as well. Hopefully with a more extensive knowledge I can put it to good use and help to make a change for the better in regards to poverty and make a difference in the world.

#3 Revised Summary/Plan/Update

For my research plan I did not really change anything that I previously thought I was going to do. I still have to send my survey out to more people but from what I have done so far I can say that my hypothesis seems to be holding true. People do not know a lot about poverty, even though people might think that they do. My questions are fact based rather than opinion based so that I can get results on how much information people know. I am going to send my survey to many more people so that I can be sure that my hypothesis is right, however so far I have seen that my thoughts have been correct.

#2 Strategy/Plan for Research

For my survey, I plan to make a Google doc. with questions regarding how much people in the middle class actually know about poverty. Since I learned an enormous amount about poverty, and really didn't know as much as I thought I did, I believe that many people also probably do not know a lot about poverty in the world. I am going to put my survey on Facebook so that my friends and people my age will be able to answer the questions and I can get the perspective of younger people. I am also going to have my mom send the survey to the people that she works with so I can see how much people who are older than me know about poverty. I would seem to think that people who are older might have a better understanding of poverty than those who are younger. However, my survey will help me better see what people actually know and what they do not know or understand so that I can help inform them on things they may never have realized are going on right around them every day.

Quarter 2 #1 Suggested Research Method/Why? Poverty

For my semester project I am thinking about using survey research to find out just how much people actually know about poverty. Being that I learned so much through my research in the previous quarter, I thought it would be interesting to see if people know the things I just recently learned. Before I did my research, I thought I knew so much more than I actually did about poverty. I think it will be interesting to see how much people know, or don't know on the subject of poverty. I think that I might ask some questions about certain factual information on poverty while also asking some opinionated questions. Since I have really learned a great deal of information, hopefully my survey will help me to see what people don't understand about poverty so that I might be able to teach them some things that they don't already know.

#8 What Can I Take from All of This?

Summary of Research

 Through all of my research this semester, there are many things I can take away.  When I first began looking for things that I could blog about, I didn't really think that I was going to necessarily find many ways in which poverty was coming to an end. However, I was surprised to see that much of my research involved ways in which poverty was beginning to decline in the world or how other people were trying to put an end to it. If I could take away anything in particular it would be that we are all the solution to ending poverty. If we are pro-active people with the right mindset anything is possible; even seemingly impossible things. I realized that there really are tons of organizations that are extremely dedicated to ending poverty around the globe and that it is pretty easy to become involved and to help wherever possible. Knowing this, I hope that I can become involved with helping to end poverty in any way that I can. Hopefully the knowledge that I have gained this semester will be the first step in my road to helping end poverty.

#7 Biodiversity and Ending Poverty?

Why Should You Care About Wildlife? How can it Help End Poverty?

In the article that I found, it talks about how Biodiversity and Wildlife help to keep the economy going and keep us away from poverty. Animal, plant and marine biodiversity keeps ecosystems functional which in turn allows us to survive, get enough food to eat and make a living.Biodiversity is critical to ending poverty because many people depend on nature itself for their livelihood. Because many animals are becoming extinct, it has become increasingly hard for people to survive because they lack food which helps them to eat and make a living. It is also critical to the poor because 75% of the poor live in rural areas and are dependent on nature to live. The World Bank has invested has over $1 billion invested in protecting wildlife and provides the means to protect wildlife to many areas of the world via financial support. Investments in biodiversity can create jobs and raise incomes. The Bank’s US$ 5.5 million investment in South Africa’s Greater Addo Elephant National Park created 614 jobs for people living in the surrounding areas.When we protect animals and plants, we are also protecting  the ecosystems that underlie our economies and well-being. I think that it is wonderful that simply protecting the environment (which we should be doing anyway) we can help in potentially decreasing the poverty rate around the world. Simple things that we do in our daily life can not only help other people who may be in poverty, but can also help to reduce the poverty rate. Hopefully by enforcing Biodiversity we can start helping to end poverty around the world.

#6 The World Bank

    The World Bank Website

The website that I just came across I think is the most helpful and interesting thing that I found so far all semester. As you can see from the picture below, the World Bank is an organization trying to rid the world of poverty. The World bank has many projects and operations with which it is involved and is constantly trying to make people aware of what poverty is and how we can try and stop it. I really enjoyed this website because it has such a variety of different things to read about and tons of data and statistics that are relevant to my topic of poverty. This one website gave me insight to things I never knew about and supplied me with many articles to read without having to keep changing to a series of different websites. Just about anything that I could need or want to discover about poverty is now so easy for me to find because this website has everything I could want to know about poverty. I would encourage everyone to take the time to read through some of the organizations and plans for stopping poverty; you never know how you can help to make a difference in the world by doing something simple. I noticed that there are live chats on this website for people to express their own views about poverty. I hope to participate one day and to hear other people's ideas so that I can try and make a difference in the world of poverty too. 

 

#5 The Poor will NOT ALWAYS be with us

 "The tyranny of extreme poverty is being broken."

The message of this video is that one day we will be able to see a world without poverty and that there is still hope; even though it seems like the bad statistics are bigger than the solutions. In the beginning of the video, Dr. Scott Todd says something that I never really realized before. He said that diseases, lack of food, clean water, and most natural disasters don't kill people.. but extreme poverty does. Extreme poverty is the "one single killer responsible for all of these deaths".There are many signs that show that poverty is reducing. In just a few years, the Malaria rate as well as the rate of children dying every day from unpreventable causes was cut in half! Even if we look back only a short amount of time, it is clear that things have began to change for the better. Just 100 years ago nearly everyone was living in extreme poverty and only lived to be about 30 years old. Today the world has made improvements and we now have things such as the automobile, plane, vaccines and more that show we are making our way out of poverty as a whole. We have been able to cut the percentage of people living in extreme poverty in half. I find it amazing that in such a short amount of time we have been able to make advances and start moving in the right direction away from poverty.
 I think that i especially liked this video because it is greatly based off of religious ideas and information. My faith is really important to me so I really connected with this video and was able to really understand his point of view. If out generation works together, we really may be able to see an end to poverty as it is today. If the percentage has already been cut in half, why can't it be cut down again? 

#4 Calling all "Janes of the World"!

 "Being poor doesn't mean being ordinary." 
 TED "An Escape from Poverty" talk

The video TED talk that I found really inspired me. It first taught me that poverty really is more than just income and that we need to look at it on a broader spectrum to understand it. Even though there were a lot of powerful things stated in the video, the quote above really struck me as something that was true. When most people think of the poor, they probably think that they are helpless people and can't do anything for other people; especially when they can barely help themselves. After watching the TED talk and learning about the inspirational attitude of a woman named Jane, I realized that this way of thinking was completely false. The young woman Jane lived in a very poor slum in Kenya called Nairobi which is known for prostitution and violence. Throughout her life, Jane had two dreams: to be a doctor, and marry a good man that would stay with her and make a family. However, when she did get married her husband left her and she had no money to pursue becoming a doctor so she turned to prostitution. One really powerful thing that she said was "The poverty wasn't so bad, it was the humiliation and embarrassment of it all." Even though Jane had many hardships in her life, the video talks about how she ultimately turned it around. She started her own business re-purposing dresses and jewelry and selling them to women to make money. She was even able to eventually move into a newly built community and have better living conditions for her and her children. This video really inspired me because it gave me some hope when looking at the subject of poverty. It showed me that the change really starts with you, and that anything is possible if you believe and work hard. Even though Jane had to give up on her original dreams, she is still thankful for everything she has in life and feels that she can inspire other people and help her own family; which is what really satisfies her. Jane said "Maybe I'm not a doctor that gives out pills, but I'm something better because I give them hope." I think we all need to become more like Jane so we can spread a positive light and hope for the future of hopefully one day ending poverty. Calling all Janes of the world... will you accept the challenge to bring forth the change?

#3 Poverty video "Poverty's new address in America"

Poverty's new address in America? The suburbs 

The video "Poverty's new address in America" followed the stories of two different families and their struggles to survive in the suburbs in America. Even though many people, including myself, believe that most people in the United States that are suffering with poverty live in big cities, I was surprised to find out that a majority actually live in the suburbs similar to my own town. Some things that I learned from this video are that America's suburbs are home to its biggest and fastest growing poor population. Suburbs are actually suffering more than cities. The suburbs attract immigrants whose poverty rate is higher than the native born American. (51% of immigrants live in the suburbs) The poor stay in the suburbs because of safety, better schools, and more affordable housing.
 I wonder why it seems that poverty is less noticeable in the suburbs even though it seems to be becoming more prevalent. Even though we really don't recognize poverty as much in the suburbs as we do in say New York city, the percentages of people having to live in poverty don't lie.  The poverty rate has increased a significant amount due to the recession and many people, just like the ones in this video are severely struggling to survive; many without getting any income at all.  

  

#2 Povery Facts and Stats Blog

Poverty Facts and Stats

 I chose to read the poverty facts and stats article first because I felt that I should have a general knowledge of the poverty totals in the world before doing any specific research. This article really broke down into the specifics of how badly poverty is plaguing the world. The very first sentence of the article " Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day" really put into perspective just how serious poverty is throughout the world. Living in the mostly fortunate society that I live in, there is no possible way anyone could live off of only $2.50 per day. That amount of money could barley even buy one person lunch at McDonald's! The statistics found in this article were truly horrifying and unbelievable . The amount of people dying and becoming sick due to the poverty levels not only in the US, but the whole world, is really sickening. Another statistic that was really shocking to me was the amount of people in the world living without electricity. I know that I would not be able to survive without having electricity, so it breaks my heart to know that there are hundreds of millions of people living in places like South Asia, East Asia, and Africa living without any electricity at all. Not only did this article help to put into perspective the gravity of the poverty situation in the world, but it also made me truly appreciative of what I have and that I am fortunate enough to not have to live in poverty.  

                            

#1 Intro to Poverty

Hi my name is Loryn Gugliotta and this is my first blog! I decided to take Sociology this year to learn about a broad variety of topics and I'm excited to see what this class can offer me. In the future I plan on majoring in nursing so I think that this class will help me now as well as in the future. The topic I have chosen for this semester is poverty. I chose this topic because it is something that I feel I will be able to get a lot out of . I love to volunteer and have worked with organizations to help fight against poverty, so I am interested in learning more about it and how I can further help to try and prevent it. Hopefully I will be able to learn a lot more about poverty than I already know and ultimately be able to help many of the people who suffer from it with my new found knowledge.