Poverty is About More than Money

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Aisha Antoinette is a HOPE client in Rwanda.

In the 1990s, the World Bank surveyed over sixty thousand of the financially poor throughout the developing world and asked how they described poverty.

What surprised me was that those in poverty didn’t focus on their material need. Rather, they alluded to social and psychological aspects of poverty.

Analyzing the study, Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development said,

Poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness.

We’ve asked similar questions through informal surveys to our clients at HOPE International and repeatedly heard similar responses. Here are common responses to the question “How do you define poverty?” I hope they’re as eye-opening for you as they were for me:

  • Poverty is an empty heart.
  • Not knowing your abilities and strengths.
  • Not being able to make progress.
  • Isolation.
  • No hope or belief in yourself. Knowing you can’t take care of your family.
  • Broken relationships.
  • Not knowing God.
  • Not having basic things to eat. Not having money.
  • Poverty is a consequence of not sharing.
  • Lack of good thoughts.

Money is infrequently mentioned.

Continue reading at the blog for Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics (IFWE).

IFWE recently released For the Least of These: A Biblical Answer to Poverty, where I had the privilege of contributing a chapter, part of which is excerpted in this blog. 

1 Comment

  1. […] Poverty is about a deeper brokenness that scars all humans. Surveys conducted by HOPE International revealed that “poverty is an empty heart, hopelessness, isolation, broken relationships and not knowing God.” […]

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