Children around the world

One of the big questions in my mind is, how many children are in poverty and is there any significance between culture or race that makes children more susceptible to it.

As of 2006 approximately 13.3 million children were in poverty.  Children make up about 35 percent of the world's population and so many of them go without the necessities for life.  

As it stands right now....

26% are white children

60% are African American

61% are Latino 

30% are Asian

57% are Native American

These children are living in poor quality dwellings, who's families are living on about a dollar a day.  Sometimes having to choose which child gets to eat and which goes without.  

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD

Caucasian Children

Isn't it funny that in one of the most wealthy countries in the world, 25% of children under 18 live below the poverty line?  Welfare is a God send to these families, if they can take the time to fill out the paperwork, and the energy to keep the regulations maintained.  These are the children who can't afford school supplies, and lunch money for school, and yet for as poor as some of these kids are, they don't compare to some of the children in third world countries.

African American Children

The African American population was beaten down from the start.  Americans brought them over as slaves, than in 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, which set all of the slaves free.  Unfortunately, because of there skin color businesses would not hire them, children were not given equal schooling opportunities, which ultimately sent the population of African Americans into a poverty of which they have not been able to completely overcome.

Latino Children

Children of South American, or Latino decent are at a huge disadvantage, because they have been born into a culture and country that is extremely poor.  The government in their countries cannot control the economy enough to help their people get out of poverty.  The children in these cultures live in so many sad situations.  They either live in small two room huts with large families who don't have enough food to feed all of the members.  Many of these children, when they are old enough either run away, or are kicked out by their parents because they need to be able to provide for the younger children.  The older kids end up out on the street selling flowers, washing cars, helping tourists, or worse, selling drugs for gangs and dealers.  These kids seem to have no future because they can't afford to feed themselves, much less get an education and make enough money to support their families and themselves.

Asian Children

The majority of children in Asia are in poverty because the huge population problem going on in these countries.  Most families are only allowed to have one or two children, so rationally the parents want male heirs.  The little girls are not valued nearly as much as the boys, and therefore are sent to live in orphanages so that the parents may try again to have a boy. 

Native American Children

Native American children have much the same problems that the African American children have.  When Americans first came to America and started colonizing the Native Americans were pushed farther and farther off into the continent.  Eventually the government stuck the remaining tribes onto plots of unusable and degraded land.  The tribes have since stayed on these reservations and created their own communities.  Unfortunately, by driving these people from their home lands and changing their way of life so drastically that they were not able to support their families in our culture.  This is still a problem today, because the Native Americans live on their own communities, away from the rest of America, they don't have the same chances and opportunities that we, as white Americans have.