Poverty

I chose the Latin America and Caribbean region.  I chose this region because my daughter’s girl scout trooped researched Guyana for an event.  We learned a lot of valuable information about Guyana.  There are a lot of challenges that children in this region face. Poverty is a major stressor that affects a lot of children.  I know poverty affects a lot of countries, but I chose to explore the poverty issues in Guyana.  Guyana is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.  Guyana has wealth of natural resources, including fertile agricultural land, minerals and large swaths of tropical forest.  It ranks 117th out of 187 countries on the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index, and is classified as a lower-middle-income country by the World Bank.  Approximately two-thirds of Guyanese citizens living in poverty, or 29% of the population, can be classified as being extremely poor. Most of the poor live in rural areas and work as agricultural laborers. Although Guyana’s farmers have access to adequate land resources, their productivity is extremely low.  It saddens me to know that countries such as Guyana experience poverty like this.  It really makes me appreciate the abundance of resources that we have in the US.  I hope that one day these same resources can be sent to places like Guyana to help eliminate some of the challenges the children face.

Reference

 http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/