A recent study in the United States titled, Baby’s First Years, has shown that providing financial support to new mothers increases their children's brain activity. Compared to many other parts of the world, the United States does not currently have any paid maternity leave laws in place for new mothers. 

“This is a big scientific finding,” said Martha J. Farah, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania, who reviewed the study for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “It’s proof that just giving the families more money, even a modest amount leads to better brain development [in children].”

The study goes as follows, Dr. Noble and a team of researchers from six universities rounded up mothers and their newborns who were within days of birth. They were then randomly divided into two groups, receiving a payment of either $20 a month or $333 a month. The payments will continue until the children reach at least 4 years old, with further testing planned. Baby’s First Years were designed “to assess the impact of poverty reduction on family life and infant and toddlers’ cognitive, emotional, and brain development”.

By using an EEG (a test that measures brain activity) to evaluate the children once they have reached their first year, the researchers learned that those in the group where mothers were receiving larger payments had experienced more brain activity compared to those with smaller payments. This increased brain activity has often been linked to more advanced cognitive development. In the chart below, it is seen that across the alpha, beta, and gamma ranges of high-frequency brain activity, the levels of activity were higher.

Results from the EEG test measuring brain waves for the study. Image: PNAS

MRI results of the infants’ brains have shown differences in the size of the cerebral cortex between the two groups. The cerebral cortex is responsible for complex brain functions, such as language and information processing.

It is still unclear why money correlated with altered brain development. More funds for the mothers means it could have been used to purchase healthier food and better health care, reduce levels of parental stress, or allow mothers to work less so they would have more time to spend with their children.

On average, less-privileged children start their educational journey with weaker cognitive skills. Neuroscientists now have evidence that can prove the differences that extend to brain activity and function. Although it has not been made clear whether those differences come directly from lack of funds or from other factors, like parental education or neighborhood, the study offers evidence that poverty can hold children back from development in their earliest moments. It is important to remember that in any group case study, there are outliers. There are plenty of cases where children who come from poverty have greatly succeeded in life. 

“This is the first study to show that money, in and of itself, has a causal impact on brain development,” explains Dr. Kimberly G. Noble, a physician and neuroscientist at Teachers College, Columbia University, who helped lead the study.

Children are impacted by poverty all over the world. By downloading Altruisto and shopping with one of our 100’s of partners, you can effortlessly donate to a charity helping those in need at no extra cost to you. Whenever you shop with the Altruisto browser extension, 2-6% of your purchase goes directly to a vetted evidence-backed charity. For example, from a purchase of only $40, $2.40 gets donated and gets 2 children cured of parasites. Download today and help your fellow human, one click at a time. 

A recent study has shown that providing financial support to new mothers increases their children's brain development.

New Study Finds Link Between Poverty & Brain Development in Children

A recent study has shown that providing financial support to new mothers increases their children's brain development. 

Who would have thought that – with self-driving cars and Mars colonization on the horizon – the world would still be suffering from poverty and famine? As of mid-2020, there were nearly 690 million people living under the extreme poverty line, i.e. for less than $1.90 per day.

Although charities and NGOs have been working tirelessly to eradicate global poverty, there’s still a long way to go. In the following article, we’re going to take a look at how poverty is defined, how it impacts children, and what can be done to alleviate poverty.

Poverty is all around us – it’s a phenomenon that some of us have experienced first hand, while others only heard of but never had to deal with. Being poor means different things to different people, that’s why it’s worth starting with a definition of poverty. The World Bank associates poverty with deprivation in well-being – it means being hungry, lacking shelter, being illiterate, or being sick and not having anyone to care for you. 

If you’re wondering whether it’s possible to translate poverty definition into a number, then it is, however, various poverty lines apply:

$3.20 a day for people in "lower-middle-income" countries, such as Egypt or India,

$5.50 a day for "upper-middle-income" countries, such as Jamaica or South Africa.

$21.70 a day for high-income countries, like the US.

Reducing poverty to financial terms only is a simplification, and it’s necessary to take a look at different types of poverty to better understand its origins. According to Eric Jensen, there are 6 poverty types:

Absolute poverty – takes place when a family’s income isn’t sufficient to meet their basic needs such as shelter, access to safe drinking water, education, and healthcare. It’s country dependent. 

Relative poverty – occurs when a household’s income is insufficient to keep up with the average family’s living standards. 

Situational poverty – as the name indicates, it’s caused by a sudden event such as a divorce, death of a family member who acts as the breadwinner, or a job loss. 

Generational poverty – occurs when your family is poor and as a result, you’re born into poverty.  

Urban poverty – happens in large metropolitan areas (of 50,000 people or more). Urban poverty causes stress related to crowding, violence and noise which the government is unable to solve.  

Rural poverty – relates to destitution in rural areas specifically, and includes issues such as: sparse job opportunities, difficulty in accessing quality education, unavailability of other social services

Now that you understand what poverty is, let’s move onto discussing the subject which is particularly heartbreaking – children in poverty. 

Eradicating global poverty will be impossible if organizations and governments don’t prioritize youth welfare programs.

It’s important to understand that children poverty is a result of a vicious cycle. Parents who can’t escape poverty themselves are incapable of securing a better future for their children. The same fate will be passed on from one generation to the next until this chain reaction is broken.

To understand the full scale of child poverty, it’s worth taking a look at the statistics.

As mentioned earlier, in mid-2020 there were over 688 million people living under the extreme poverty line. Children under the age of 14 made as many as 44% of this group – a staggering 266 million! 

Here are the top obstacles that are keeping children in poverty:

Lack of healthcare. In the poorest regions, children die or deal with life-long consequences of diseases that are easily preventable or treatable in the developed parts of the world.

Malnutrition. Lack of proper nutrition cripples children’s development in many ways – not just their physical, but also intellectual capabilities. 

Lack of access to education. Without an education, potential career paths are scarce, and most children are likely to remain poor for the remainder of their lives.

What steps should the governments and NGOs take to help children escape poverty?

Limiting bureaucracy. Children welfare programs might be strictly controlled or limited by governments – if not due to their policies, then as a result of complex decision-making processes. Social programs might also not be promoted in the poorest regions, making it hard to reach the poorest children.

International, joint efforts. Charities and NGOs need to work with one another, as well as with country governments and organizations like the WHO or World Bank. Cooperation is key to making a lasting difference across the entire globe.

Programs for parents and adults. If a child is to escape poverty, it’s crucial that its parents are given the means to earn enough money to raise their social status. Not to mention, a well-nourished, healthy child has a better chance of getting the right education and climbing the social ladder, which we elaborate on in our next section.

Access to education should be everyone’s right, yet over 175 million children globally are not enrolled in pre-primary education, with only 1 in 5 children being in school in low-income countries. Poverty and education are directly interlinked, and if the issue of poverty isn’t promptly addressed then the quality of education, as well as access to it, will remain limited. 

You might want to ask – how does poverty impact education? There are at least 6 ways in which poverty influences education:

Literacy gap – low-income parents are less likely to sing, read, and talk with their kids, which limits their exposure to the written and spoken word. This has its confirmation in statistics. Poor children have seen and heard 30 million fewer words than their wealthy counterparts. 

High mobility – poor families tend to have a nomadic lifestyle, they often change locations in search of employment. This forces the kids to drop out of one school and enroll in another, which has an adverse effect on learning. 

Impaired brain development – good nutrition is necessary to support proper brain development. Unfortunately, poor families are less likely to afford good quality food. Kids often go to school without breakfast –  hunger makes it harder for them to focus. 

Poor mental and physical health – poverty unavoidably leads to stress from bad living conditions, not enough food, or violence. As a result, poor children suffer from mental conditions that limit their cognitive development. 

The necessity to support the parents – more often than not, children have to choose work over education in order to financially support their families, which are unable to provide enough food for the household. 

Not being able to get to school – it’s not uncommon for kids living in poverty to walk to school for hours as there is no school nearby and the road infrastructure is limited. By the time they reach school, they’re exhausted, which makes absorbing knowledge rather difficult if not impossible. 


Are there ways to alleviate poverty in the world?

What Are The Ways To Reduce Poverty In The World

Luckily, the fight against poverty isn’t a lost cause, and there are steps we can take to reduce global poverty – let’s get to them now. 

Governments must join the fight against poverty

One of the tactics for poverty alleviation is greater governmental involvement. It should be every government’s aim to help its citizens get out of destitution. There are countries that are leading the way in this difficult battle. For example, Brazil set up the Bolsa Familia program in 2003. The government transfers small amounts of cash to the poorest families in exchange for the warranty of children going to school and attending preventive health visits. 

Supporting charities that fight poverty 

There are numerous charities that dedicate their time and resources towards poverty reduction. These include:

Against Malaria Foundation – distributes insecticidal nets to populations living in malaria-prone areas. 

D-Rev –  designs and delivers world-class, affordable health technologies such as polycentric prosthetic knees for above-the-knee amputees. 

Evidence Action – focuses on scaling evidence-based and cost-effective programs aimed at reducing world poverty. 

Schistosomiasis Control Initiative – works with governments in sub-Saharan Africa to create sustainable programs to fight parasitic worm infections.

Give Directly – helps extremely poor families through unconditional cash transfers via mobile phones. 

The poor often suffer from numerous diseases, as destitution forces them to live in bad conditions, they lack access to clean water and can’t afford nutritious food. All of this negatively impacts their health, which prevents them from working and providing for their families driving them further into poverty. 

Research conducted by UNESCO indicates that if all developing country students had at least basic reading skills, then an estimated 171 million people could be lifted from extreme poverty. Ensuring that all adults had secondary education, would result in poverty reduced by 50%. Improving access to education would have a tangible effect on poverty alleviation. 

Global citizens must be actively involved

The truth is, to win the fight against poverty, we must all join forces. There are many ways in which we can help, be it through financially supporting charities, volunteering at non-governmental organizations or by installing Altruisto. Part of the amount you spend during your shopping will go to selected charities working towards poverty reduction – at no extra cost to you. 

When discussing global poverty, it’s worth taking a look at the example of India. While the country is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, it also has a deeply-fractured society. The impact of this social stratification can be seen not just through the lens of religious or cultural practices, but also the economical status.

As of May 2020, there were still 41 million people in India living under the extreme poverty line of $1.90. That’s the equivalent of the population of four countries – Greece, Portugal, Czechia, and Jordan – combined!

Image source: "Village store" by runran is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Corruption. India has had its share of social welfare programs. However, many of them failed due to nepotism or mismanagement. This includes the $9 billion MNREGA program that aimed at helping the rural communities. Which brings us to…

Uneven wealth distribution. According to Oxfam, India’s top 1% of the population holds 73% of the country’s entire wealth. To put this problem further into perspective – it would take a minimum wage, rural worker over 941 years to earn the yearly salary of a top-paid garment company executive.

Low access to healthcare. If you were to take a wild guess which country has the highest maternal mortality rate, it’s likely you’d bet on one of the Sub-Saharan nations. However, the number of women who perish during or shortly after labour is the highest in India, standing at a shocking 17%. Also, 21% of children don’t live to see their fifth birthday.

Lack of access to education. As mentioned in our previous section, low access to education, combined with no healthcare or malnutrition means that not many children can escape poverty when they become adults.

The middle class is stratified. India’s middle class doesn’t speak in one political voice. While some people actively participate in politics, others are disengaged. Some engage in extreme religious parties, while others are pro-secular. These and other differences demobilize the political potential of India’s middle class.

With this in mind, here are 3 poverty alleviation programmes in India that we recommend taking a look at: Deworm the World Initiative, Give Directly, and Oxfam. You can read about these organizations below:

7 organizations that are battling in the war on poverty

With all of the above in mind, let’s now take a look at the organizations that are going to great lengths to win the war on poverty. All of the charities and NGOs mentioned below are evidence-backed and have been verified by independent evaluators: GiveWell, Charity Navigator, and The Life You Can Save. 

Oxfam International is one of the world’s biggest NGOs. The organization carries out a whole range of charitable work, which includes helping the poorest access education, healthcare, food, and clean drinking water.

GiveDirectly is a unique organization on the charity landscape, as it lets you wire funds directly to people in need. Donate via their website and install Altruisto.

D-Rev is an organization that develops life-saving equipment and distributes it in the world’s poorest regions. So far, they’ve helped save hundreds of thousands of lives of infants and the disabled.

SCI helps 15 governments in Sub-Saharan Africa through running deworming campaigns. So far, the foundation has provided treatment to over 180 million Africans, preventing schistosomiasis and helminthiasis – both parasite-borne diseases.

One Acre Fund helps 1 million smallholder farmers escape poverty by giving them the financial support they need to grow more crops.They also give a helping hand with distribution, provide various types of training, and offer consultations on market facilitation (i.e. which storage solutions to use and how to capitalize on fluctuating demand). The goal of One Acre Fund is to help its beneficiaries become financially independent to help them build a better future for themselves and their families.

The foundation distributes mosquito nets among the poorest households to help them prevent Malaria.

Through the Against Malaria Foundation website

HKI is a global organization that helps prevent diseases and vitamin A deficiency sight loss, as well as fights famine by helping farmers grow more food.

You can read more about all of the above-mentioned organizations in our article dedicated to the war on poverty.

Although global poverty is still a burning issue and a lot of work needs to be done, it’s not a lost cause! The only way to reduce poverty and change the lives of the millions of people suffering from it is cooperation. Global citizens, charities, and governments have to join forces against the war on poverty.

The good news is we can all contribute to this cause. Install Altruisto – a free web browser extension that lets you donate money to charities as you shop, at no additional cost to you! 

When you purchase through our partners’ websites (including Aliexpress, Barnes & Noble, Booking.com, eBay, Etsy, and Microsoft), a portion of the money you pay will go to underfunded charities. 

We work with evidence-backed, underfunded organizations like Against Malaria Foundation, SCI Foundation, and Give Directly.

Global poverty in 2020, facts, statistics, organisations that are making a difference, find out how you can help here!

All You Need To Know About Global Poverty In 2020

All You Need To Know About Global Poverty In 2021

In the last 30 years, NGOs and international organizations have done tremendous work on eradicating poverty worldwide. In 2018, the World Bank reported that over 1.1 billion people have been pulled out of extreme poverty since the year 1990. 

However, there’s still a long way to go. World Data Lab statistics are alarming – as of 2020, there are over 600 million people still living under the poverty line, i.e. for less than $1.90 per day. Children under the age of 14 make as much as 44% of this group – i.e. 266 million. 

Unfortunately, as the world is battling the COVID-19 pandemic, the initial goal of eradicating extreme poverty by the year 2030 is now seriously endangered.

What do governments and organizations need to do to save children? And how can you help?

In the following post, we discuss the root causes of children poverty and how organizations are currently tackling the challenge. We also share 3 extremely simple ways in which you can contribute to making children poverty a distant memory.

Children in poverty – causes and effects

There are several factors that make it impossible for children to escape poverty. The most important being:

Like in other parts of the world, education is crucial for climbing the social ladder. However, while in the West we think of education as a way of avoiding unemployment, it’s not necessarily the case in poverty-stricken regions. Many people living under the poverty line are, in fact, employed (though on terrible financial terms or in inhumane conditions). Access to education creates potential career paths that could help children and their future families escape poverty. 

In the poorest countries, children are dying or suffering from life-long consequences of illnesses that are easily preventable in developed regions. These include diseases that are treatable through antibiotics, prevented by vaccination, or avoided via better sanitary standards or mosquito nets. For instance, uncontrolled toilet waste disposal leads to the spread of diseases like cholera or Ebola.

Image source: https://www.againstmalaria.com/Distribution1.aspx?ProposalID=184&distributionID=597
Image description: An image from Against Malaria Foundation’s campaign in Malawi.

Malnutrition takes on various forms – from being underweight and stunting (a lower-than-average height for a given age) to starvation.

According to the World Health Organization, “around 45% of deaths of children under 5 years are linked to undernutrition”. 

Paradoxically, these very same countries also witness a rise in child obesity due to vitamin and mineral-deprived diet.

All these types of malnutrition result in one terrible consequence – the incapability of reaching one’s physical and cognitive potential. 

All of the above points lead to...

As children grow up in harsh conditions, they can’t contribute economically, socially, and politically to the welfare of impoverished citizens when they come of age. 

The result?
A vicious cycle of poverty, passed on from one generation to the next.

Parents, who were deprived of the opportunity to leave extreme living conditions behind, are incapable of saving their children from experiencing the same fate.

And if the parents are incapable of helping their sons and daughters, it’s up to governments to secure a better future for its growing citizens. However, most of them can’t do it alone.

Efforts that need to be taken on a global scale

NGOs and international organizations are working around the clock, with a special emphasis on:

Prioritizing social & healthcare programs

Organizations need to work closely with governments. 

For instance, UNICEF has set a goal of single-handedly contributing to halving children poverty by 2030. It’s currently working alongside governments and the World Bank to introduce medical, educational, and social programs.

Image source: https://schistosomiasiscontrolinitiative.org/how-we-work

Other organizations worth mentioning include Give Directly (that lets donors send money directly to people in need), and two healthcare initiatives – Against Malaria Foundation and Schistosomiasis Control Initiative.

Some countries still obstruct the functioning of charities and aid programs. These limitations need to be relieved through cooperation with global organizations like the WHO or the World Bank. 

Bureaucracy also means that programs might not be adequately promoted in the poorest regions, making it hard to reach those in need. In fact, it was due to bureaucracy and vague administrative divisions in countries like Nigeria, that Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was incapable of eradicating polio through their vaccination campaigns.

Programs for adults – so that they can move out of poverty

As mentioned earlier, when families have the ability to move out of poverty, their children can finally gain access to better healthcare, nutrition, and education. The numbers speak for themselves. 

As reported by World Vision, “since 1990, the number of children dying — mostly from preventable causes such as poverty, hunger, and disease — is less than half of what it was, dropping from more than 35,000 a day to under 15,000.” And so, creating programs for parents or young adults can finally stop this tragic domino effect.

Now, let’s see how individuals like you and I can also contribute to this cause.

How can you help? Here are 3 simple ways.

You know how they say, “little by little does the trick”? 

Consider choosing a verified charity and set a regular donation. While the donation can be very modest, over the years it might lead to saving dozens of lives. For instance, it costs the Against Malaria Foundation only about $4.5 to purchase an anti-mosquito net for a household in need, and only $0.66 to deworm a sick child through the Evidence Action program.
With programs like Give Directly, you can also send your donations directly to people in poverty, skipping all the bureaucracy.

We also recommend that you check if you can donate part of your yearly income tax. Some countries (for example, Poland and the United Kingdom via its Gift Aid program) allow citizens to donate part of their tax to an NGO of their choice.

Buy charitable gifts for family & friends

Looking for a meaningful birthday or wedding gift? Consider buying a voucher that saves children's lives! Organizations like Oxfam and Against Malaria let you buy gift cards for vaccines, baby formula, respirators, and others.

Image source: https://www.oxfamgifts.com/gift-category/women-children/

At Altruisto, we’ve developed a free browser extension that lets you donate money to charities addressing issues of global poverty as you shop, at no additional cost to you! 

How does it work? It’s simple. All you need to do is install the plugin, and when you shop through our partners’ websites (including Aliexpress, Barnes & Noble, Booking.com, eBay, Etsy, and Microsoft), a portion of the money you pay will go to underfunded charities. 

Help us prevent over 500,000 deaths yearly

Eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 is an ambitious goal – especially now, as the World Bank and other organizations have to additionally face a new adversary – the Coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, it’s crucial that organizations, governments, and individuals all join forces! 

Support us in the battle – together, we can make a difference for so many lives. Also, help us spread the word about Altruisto by sharing this post or our homepage in your network!

Find out more about children in poverty, learn the facts and statistics and help out!

Children in poverty – facts, statistics & how you can help

Schistosomiasis. A weird disease with a long name that kills almost 600 people each day.[1] It spreads through unclean water and affects predominately the most vulnerable victims – children. But there are good news – we have the tools to get rid of it. Treating one person costs less than a bottle of clean water in the United Kingdom. In public health, that’s as good of a deal as it gets. And there are opportunities for you to help with as little effort as a few clicks.

Skin blisters created by the entrance of the parasite

Schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, is spread by a contact with water containing parasite warms. The parasites are released from freshwater snails. They penetrate the skin, live in the blood vessels, and start releasing the eggs. Some of the eggs leave humans’ body with urine and continue to infect further snails. Other eggs reach the organs and start damaging them. Because of unclean water, everyday domestic activities, for example washing clothes, become life-threatening. 

Parasites attack children when they are playing in water

Playing in water, swimming, or fishing put children at high risk of getting schistosomiasis. Just having fun can lead to serious problems with health and learning abilities.

“The children were having abdominal pain, diarrhoea and nausea. This made it difficult for them to follow the lessons,” Christophe Harerimana, a school teacher in Rwanda, describes.[2]

Fortunately, the effects are usually reversible with treatment. 

11-year-old boy with abdominal fluid and portal hypertension due to schistosomiasis (Agusan del Sur, Philippines)

The most deadly neglected tropical disease

World Health Organization estimated that there were more than 200,000 annual deaths related to schistosomiasis in 2014. Another 20 million had severe consequences caused by the disease. That’s almost as many people as there is in Australia. It is the most deadly neglected tropical disease.[3]

Schistosomiasis results in abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and blood in the stool and urine. Untreated infection may produce liver damage, kidney failure, infertility, or bladder cancer. In children it causes poor growth and learning difficulties. 

In 2016 over 200 million people needed treatment for schistosomiasis, but only about 90 million people were actually treated.

Treatment is so cheap, you wouldn’t believe

Treating one child from snail fever costs approximately one dollar. One dollar – that’s all it takes to give a person health and better opportunities in life, for example, getting education or breaking the perpetual cycle of poverty. The treatment doesn’t require specialistic knowledge, the medications can be easily distributed by schools. Rigourous research shows that deworming (process of treating people from parasites) improves children school attendance by 25% and their future earnings by 40%.[4] That’s as good return of a one-dollar investment as it gets.

There are exceptionally effective charities working on providing medications to those who need them. One of them is Schistosomiasis Control Initiative – a charity started at Imperial Collage London and supported by, among others, Bill and Melinda Gates. GiveWell.org, an organization that does thorough research on the effectiveness of various charities, estimated that Schistomiasis Control Initiative can deworm a child for a total of around $1.09.[5]

Another charity worth noticing is Deworm the World Initiative. It was originally co-founded by Michael Kremer, an economist from Harvard University. The organization helps governments develop school-based deworming programs. GiveWell estimated that in Kenya, the cost per child dewormed is about $0.71.[6]

Ethiopian children treated for schistosomiasis

You have the power to help with a few clicks

The world is rapidly changing. Today, not only governments, charities, or CEOs of large corporations can make a difference. Thanks to the development of the internet, electronic cash transfers, and even social media every person has an opportunity to help fight the parasites attacking children thousands of miles away. 

To help tackle the problem of schistosomiasis, we have partnered with over a thousand online stores, including eBay, Etsy, Aliexpress, Barnes&Noble, and developed a browser extension, so that every time you shop online in one of them, portion of the price you pay goes to charities fighting schistosomiasis. There are no extra costs for you – the donation is fully covered by the stores. 

All you need to do to is install the extension and click a button saying “activate donation” when shopping online. As simple as that.

Donate to thouroughly vetted charities fighting schistosomiasis: Schistomiasis Control Intiative or Deworm The World Initiative


Install Altruisto browser addon, so that anytime you shop online, portion of the money you pay goes to charities fighting schistomiasis. No extra costs to you! Install Now

Share this website with your friends
That’s the most important step – if every user of Altruisto shared it with 3 friends, we would be helping to cure thousands of children from snail fever in just a few short days.

1 http://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/schistosomiasis 

2 http://www.who.int/features/2015/rwanda-deworming-campaign/en/

3 https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/ntd/diseases/schisto_burden.html

4 https://www.povertyactionlab.org/scale-ups/deworming-schools-improves-attendance-and-benefits-communities-over-long-term

5 https://www.givewell.org/charities/Schistosomiasis-Control-Initiative

6 https://www.givewell.org/charities/deworm-world-initiative

Schistosomiasis, the most deadly neglected tropical disease, can now be cured for about a dollar (and you can help)

Schistosomiasis. A weird disease with a long name that kills almost 600 people each day.1 It spreads through unclean water and affects predominately the most vulnerable victims – children. But there are good news – we have the tools to get rid of it. Treating one person costs less than a bottle of clean water in the United Kingdom. In public health, that’s as good of a deal as it gets. And there are opportunities for you to help with as little effort as a few clicks.

Every child, irrespective of their economic situation, deserves a good education. Unfortunately, the reality looks quite different – over 175 million children globally are not enrolled in pre-primary education, with only 1 in 5 children being in school in low-income countries. 

Poverty and education are interlinked – until children are able to satisfy their basic needs like food, shelter, and clothing, it will be much harder for them to learn – even though they’d like to. Living in poverty makes it difficult for children to meet their basic needs. In today’s blog post we’re going to discuss how poverty impacts education. 

Poverty and education – heartbreaking statistics 

To get a better understanding of this subject’s importance, and to see how dramatic the current situation is, let’s take a look at some statistics.

If all students from low-income countries had basic reading skills, then 171 million people could escape poverty 

Every additional year of schooling a mother receives decreases the likelihood of infant mortality by up to 10% 

250 million children between the age of 5 and 12 can’t read, write or count 

Poor children are 7 times less likely to finish school than rich children 

It’s time to discuss in more depth how poverty influences education. 

6 ways in which poverty affects education in the developing world

Children from low-income families are less exposed to written and spoken language. In fact, they have seen and heard 30 million fewer words than their counterparts from well-off families. It’s safe to say that children living below the poverty line are linguistically anorexic. Books and the Internet are perceived as luxuries that impoverished families have no access to, which significantly limits their access to information and learning. 

They’re also less likely to sing, read, and talk with their kids which deprives them of the possibility to improve their vocabulary. 

Poor families often change locations in order to seek employment, which is frequently seasonal. This leads to children dropping out of one school and enrolling in another – which significantly disrupts their education. They might experience the outsider syndrome – feeling like they don’t belong, as they constantly have to adjust to a new environment. Leaving their friends behind has a negative impact on their mood and, as a result, impedes their learning abilities. 

Parents living in extreme poverty are less likely to afford proper nutrition, with their kids often being deprived of breakfast. Not eating enough can reduce the brain’s capacity, which has a negative impact on learning – this often results in poor students falling behind their classmates. 

“Adequate nutrition is necessary for normal brain development. Nutrition is especially important during pregnancy and infancy, which are crucial periods for the formation of the brain, laying the foundation for the development of cognitive, motor, and socio-emotional skills throughout childhood and adulthood”.

Additionally, it’s not uncommon to experience drug abuse in a poor household – children that were exposed to drug use prior to their birth can have cognitive deficiencies. 

One of the factors that limit school performance is stress, which children from underprivileged families are highly exposed to. Stress from bad housing conditions, insufficient nutrition, and violence can have an adverse effect on the child’s physical and cognitive development. This, in turn, can cause mental conditions that lower the student’s motivation and desire to perform well at school. 

According to research by the Criterion Women’s Union – “When a person lives in poverty, the limbic system is constantly sending fear and stress messages to the prefrontal cortex, which overloads its ability to solve problems, set goals, and complete tasks in the most efficient ways.”

Being in a difficult financial situation lowers human intelligence. An experiment was run in Tamil, India assessing farmers’ intelligence prior to (worse off financially) and after harvest (better-off financially)– results showed a 10-point difference between these two scenarios. 

What’s more, poverty has a detrimental effect on health. The poor often suffer from diarrhea, tuberculosis, malaria, schistosomiasis, and other diseases, which – if they don’t kill them – prevent them from attending school and getting an education. This further proves that poverty and education are interlinked. 

5. The necessity to support the parents 

Poor children start working early, and frequently don’t have the time to go to school, as they need to contribute financially to the household. Even if tuition is free, there are other expenses that the parents must cover like, lunch, uniforms, examination fees, etc. It’s a huge opportunity cost for them – while the children are in school, the family is deprived of getting an extra income.

This extra income is often prioritized over gaining education, even though it has a direct impact on future earnings – provided that the quality of education is good, which often isn’t the case in developing countries. 

The number of schools in developing countries is limited and the road infrastructure is often underdeveloped. This means that children from poor families have to walk for hours to get to school, and by the time they arrive, they’re exhausted, which negatively impacts their ability to focus and learn. Some kids skip school overall, as there is no school near the place where they live, while others go to great lengths to attend school.

For example, kids who live in the mountains of the Sichuan Province in China cannot use buses to get to school as there are no roads. In order to get to school, they put together a series of wooden ladders leaned against the cliffs. Only after the photos of the kids climbing in the mountains went viral, the government decided to replace the wooden ladders with steel ones and attached them to the mountainside for more safety. This further shows how desperate the children living in poverty are to get an education. 

The Most Dangerous Journey to School in the World ...Little Kids Climbing a 2,624 Foot Cliff

Poverty and education – final thoughts 

Children living in poverty are often eager to learn but experience a lot of obstacles that prevent them from getting education. These include the necessity to financially support their parents, not getting enough food, which impairs their learning, or not having a school around.

Luckily, there are charities who fight for a better future. If you want to contribute to this fight, then install Altruisto and do good while shopping, at no extra cost to you. Part of the amount you spend during your shopping spree will go to selected charities working towards poverty reduction. Thank you! 

Discover with us how poverty influences education and how it can be addressed!

How poverty influences education

Poverty and education are interlinked – until children are able to satisfy their basic needs like food, shelter, and clothing, it will be much harder for them to learn – even though they’d like to. Living in poverty makes it difficult for children to meet their basic needs. In today’s blog post we’re going to discuss how poverty impacts education.

In our previous articles, we explained how factors like malnutrition, lack of education, and poor healthcare are keeping millions of families trapped under the extreme poverty line of $1.90 a day. Luckily, there are many organizations and joint international efforts that are working towards eradicating poverty from the face of the Earth.

Posts about: Extreme poverty

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How poverty influences education

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Definition of poverty – how is poverty defined around the world

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