The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was ratified in 1948 by all member countries of the UN, including the US. The rights enumerated in the UDHR’s 30 articles fall into two main groups, those of civil and political rights and those of social, economic and cultural rights. The civil and political rights free one from torture, slavery, rape and arbitrary imprisonment. The social, economic and cultural rights are of the type found in Article 25(1), "The right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services..." As US citizens, we often forget that many within our borders lack these basic rights, especially children.
In 1995, J. Lawrence Aber, director of the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) of the Columbia School of Public Health (http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/nccp/),
cautioned that the increasing number of poor young children reflects a 20-year trend that is having devastating consequences on children today, whether they are toddlers or teenagers. "The number of poor children under six grew from 3.4 million in 1972 to 6 million in 1992. The significance of these figures for our society cannot be overstated because we will pay the costs for the next several decades. Poor young children are not very visible to the rest of us. They live in isolated neighborhoods and are rarely noticed until they reach first grade and ‘fail,’ become adolescents and ‘get in trouble,’ or reach adulthood and can’t find jobs. Our country’s lack of attention to them has created a serious situation of growing proportions."
A factor in this lack of response was recently reported by the Feed America Organization (www.FeedAmerica.org). It explained that while many Americans believe the US government spends a great deal on the poor, that is not the truth, "Half of all government payments go to non-poor families, largely through social security payments, unemployment payments, and other transfers not based on income." Yet, poverty has serious neurological consequences. According to a 1997 NCCP report, "Researchers have gathered new evidence on the importance of the first years of life for children’s emotional and intellectual development. Unfortunately, millions of American children are poor during these crucial years. Almost one in four (24%) of America’s children under age three lived in poverty in 1995. &127;&127;
These 2.8 million poor children face a greater risk of impaired brain development due to their exposure to a number of risk factors associated with poverty." The report enumerated these risk factors: Inadequate nutrition, maternal depression, exposure to environmental toxins such as lead, substance abuse, trauma/abuse, and poor quality of day care.
Dr. Jennifer Kasper, coordinator of a study to determine the level of hunger among legal immigrants (see Volunteer Update for more information), asks, "How do we cope with the fact that 14% of low-income families report that they do not have enough to eat and the minimum wage ($5.15/hr) is only 66% of the Federal poverty level for a family of four?" Consider these other facts:
- The average poverty income line for a family of four in the US is $16,050 a year; a 40-hour per week minimum wage job before taxes pays $10,712–working 52 weeks a year. (US Census Bureau, 1997)
- Nearly 14% of the US population–approximately 36.5 million people–live below the national poverty line and 14% of poor Americans are children (US Census Bureau, 1997)
- 40% of the homeless population in the US are children (National Coalition for the Homeless, 1997)
- The 1996 poverty rate for children under age six (23%) was higher than for any other age group–more than double the rate for adults (11%) and the elderly (11%) (NCCP, 1998)
- In 1996, 63% of poor children had at least one employed parent, an increase of 16% over the previous three years (NCCP, 1998).
- In 1996, of the 5.5 million poor young children, 47% were ‘extremely poor’ (i.e., living in families with a combined family income below 50% of the Federal poverty line) (NCCP, 1998).
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