Understanding Poverty Closer to Home
Posted by Sarah Sandsted on Monday, November 23, 2009
I have seen the worst kind of hunger and poverty imaginable. Over the past few years, I have lived in both Haiti and Senegal, two of the world’s poorest nations, where hunger is severe. It is written in clear, boldface print across the faces of children, in the way they walk, in their bloated stomachs, in the way their eyes have trouble focusing, and in the red tint of their hair. Hunger in these nations is abject and brutally obvious.
I have never even considered this kind of poverty as bearing any semblance to that of my own neighborhood in Washington, DC. But the hunger is there.
I live in a pretty rough part of town. My roommate and I were victims of a mugging no more than two blocks from my front door. My morning walk to the metro station is grim; broken up with cat calls from drunken pedestrians, the persistent whining of police sirens, and the menacing presence of run-down corner stores. It’s not an area that inspires community spirit nor sympathy.
Share Our Strength is about children; hungry children in America. They are not the ones who call out obscenities to me as I walk to work. They are the ones tucked away from these streets. They are the ones who don’t make eye contact, going nearly unnoticed as they grip the hands of their mothers who are unable to give them the healthy and nutritious meals they deserve; meals that would keep them focused, alert, and ultimately, out of trouble. I have forgotten them in my journey to understanding poverty. While I have spent countless resources helping those in far-off impoverished lands, I have overlooked the children who struggle in my own neighborhood.
On Service Day, I followed the videographer, Kasey, to each site, ensuring that we captured footage of the Share Our Strength volunteers working tirelessly in our community. At the UCAP Shelter, I stood next to Kasey as he filmed two volunteers creating a visual masterpiece on a once vacant wall of the shelter’s living room. I turned to look at the women and children lying on the couch, staring into the television behind us. I recognized these faces. I knew them somehow, though we had never met. I only glanced for a moment, but something about their weary expressions, the low tilt of their heads, the downward position of their eyes, left an indelible still-frame in my memory. I recognized these faces. I had seen them before.
Something about this experience at the shelter forced me to reexamine my daily morning walk. Are these streets all that different from the shanty-home avenues I walked in Dakar or the mountain villages I hiked in Saint-Marc? Why was it so easy for me to find it in my heart to understand and sympathize with the poverty that surrounded me then, but now I can’t conjure up the same compassion for my literal neighbors? Conference of Leaders forced my perspective to morph into something I can be prouder to call my own humanity.
Poverty and struggle is universal, and children are the biggest casualty in this war we fight against hunger. I feel so moved, and so impressed by Billy and Debbie Shore. I am proud to work as a part of this movement they have created in Share Our Strength. Twenty-five years ago, they recognized a need in America that was and continues to be terribly misunderstood.
Hearing advocates like Aaron McCargo Jr., and the mothers who so generously shared their own children’s battle with hunger was deeply poignant. This, in combination with my split-second epiphany at the UCAP Shelter has transformed my resentment to understanding, and has etched a resolute desire to combat this injustice in my heart.
November 23, 2009 | | Tags: childhood hunger, poverty, washington dc
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