Poverty and Its Difficulties

What? Farmer believes it is crucial to address the systemic and structural issues and conditions that cause suffering because doing so will allow us to discern the “causes of extreme suffering and also the forces that put some at risk for human rights abuses” (50). In a way, Farmer believes it is crucial to address the systemic and structural issues to help understand the root cause of why suffering happens in the first place. Knowing the systemic and structural issues and conditions that cause suffering allow people to see why so many people are suffering and find a way to end the suffering. It is also crucial to address the systemic and structural issues that people face because there are many times when people are unaware that the people living in poverty are facing systemic and structural issues. Additionally, knowing that people who are suffering from systemic and structural issues are primarily people living in poverty allows us to dig deeper into why people in poverty in suffering from systemic and structural issues, and it allows us to come up with solutions after finding out why these people suffer from systemic and structural issues. According to Farmer, the reason why the people in poverty suffer from systemic and structural issues is because their suffering is not known about by many people. He states, “One answer is that the poor are not only more likely to suffer; they are also less likely to have their suffering noticed, as Chilean theologian Pablo Richard, noting the fall of the Berlin Wall, has warned: ‘We are aware that another gigantic wall is being constructed in the Third World, to hide the reality of the poor majorities. A wall between the rich and poor is being built, so that poverty does not annoy the powerful and the poor obliged to die in the silence of history’” (50). This quote explains the importance of why Farmer believes it is crucial to address the systemic and structural issues and conditions that cause suffering because it goes to the root cause of why so many people are suffering. Farmer indirectly implies that just seeing people suffering and doing something about that suffering only addresses the surface level of the problem. Helping people amidst their suffering helps them a lot, but it doesn’t stop more people from suffering. However, it is only when the root of why people are suffering can be found that suffering will truly end. Farmer implies that we need to dig deeper to find out why people suffer from systemic and structural issues so people will no longer suffer. In the case of why people in poverty are suffering, a big reason as to why people in poverty are suffering is because many people are not aware of the suffering they go through due to a wall being constructed between the rich and the poor. Now that we know what is causing people living in poverty to suffer, solutions such as educating the public and gathering teams to help people in poverty amidst their suffering can be utilized to help these people. Since addressing the the systemic and structural issues that cause suffering allow people to find out what is causing people living in poverty to suffer and possibly find solutions to end their sufferings permanently, Farmer believes it is crucial to address the issues that cause suffering among the people living in poverty.

This deepens my understanding of the structural issue that I identified in Davidson Middle School because I have now learned that I need to do more than just help the children. I agree that helping the children at the school helps them to achieve in their academics, but that doesn’t stop other children from struggling in school. Although I may help one child, many other children may need help as well and just sitting and helping to tutor children will not put an end to the achievement gap and struggles that many Latino children face. I now understand that rather than just helping these children, I need to dig deeper into the structural issue behind why many children at this school have difficulty doing well in school. So far, after doing some research and asking the teacher the difficulties the schools face, I have found that these children do not have access to the resources they need. They don’t have tutors that can help them when they need help, and they don’t even have a place to do homework. They suffer from a lot of family issues, and they come into school not knowing their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These structural issues are some of the underlying reasons why these children are not doing well in school, and something must be done so these children will no longer struggle in school. Some solutions that I can come up with is possibly doing a fundraiser to hire some tutors that can help these children catch up on their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division or doing some after school programs to encourage the students to go to if they need help in a particular area. Also, teaching children how to use the internet to find videos to help them with their homework is another effective way to help children succeed, and opening places up after school so children can have a quiet place do their homework may help them out as well. Although these solutions are very small, they seek to address the root cause of why children are not able to exceed in school. Therefore, throughout Farmer’s readings, I now understand that it is important to address the structural issue of why children are not doing well in school in order to come up with solutions to fix the problem as much as possible and hopefully do the best to close the achievement gap between white kids and Latino kids.

So What? Acephie’s story serves to illustrate structural injustice/violence because her story is one among many stories that involve injustice and violence due to poverty. She was forced to face many brutal conditions as a young girl living in poverty. Because she was living in poverty, she was already at risk of living a terrible life and dying such a crucial death. She was forced to be sexual partners with a soldier whom she barely knew at a young age. Unfortunately, since Acephie’s family lived in poverty, flirtation among the rich soldiers was barely rejected. Acephie had no protection, and she was forced to fend for herself after the soldier whom she was sexual partners with died. After finding out that she was pregnant with a child and had AIDS, this was a very difficult time for Acephie. Her story illustrates structural violence and injustice because it shows the struggles that she has to face as a poor girl living in poverty. It is because of her structure and status that she is faced to go through the violence and injustices that she faced in her life. Because she was poor, her parents were unable to protect her from being sexual partners with the rich soldier, which led to her suffering when she found out she had AIDS, and also when she found out she was pregnant with her daughter. She suffered so much from AIDS since she had constant diarrhea and night sweats. Therefore, Acephie’s story is an example of the structural injustice and violence that she faced due to her status and structure in life.

Similarly, Chou Chou’s story also illustrates structural and violence because he too was a person living in poverty who suffered a lot before his death. Unfortunately, a month after the coup, he was caught complaining and saying, “‘if this were as they should be, these roads would have been repaired already”’ (Farmer 37). “His fellow passengers recognized Chouchou’s observations as veiled language deploring the coup. Unfortunately for Choucou, on of the passengers was an out-of uniform soldier. At the next checkpoint, the soldier had him seized and dragged from the truck”(Farmer 37–38). Although Choucou did not say anything involving Aristide’s name, he was still arrested and beat up by the soldier because he said some simple phrase. Since Choucou is living in poverty, he does not have a right to say what he wants to say. Even though Choucou was let out of jail, he had to keep his locals happy or else he would be arrested again. When Choucou visits his sister, he was arrested for no reason, and he was beat up and left at a ditch to die. The cruel treatment shows the structural injustice and violence that Choucou faced in his life. Not only was he beaten up for saying something small, he was also arrested for no reason and beaten up. This shows how the government and the soldiers did not care about how he felt. Rather they just saw him as some peasant whom they could beat up whenever they wanted to, and because of that, Choucou was left to die. His class and structure made him a bigger target that the soldiers could attack and because of his class and structure and the hatred and carelessness the soldier had for him, he was forced to suffer terrible suffering and brutality from the soldiers. Sadly, since Choucou was born in poverty, he was more likely to have a death in which he was beaten up among the soldiers and left to die. Because of his status, it is so unfair that he had to live such a terrible life, and therefore, his story is one among many untol stories that serves to illustrate structural injustice/violence.

Based on my experience at the community partner sites, some observations that I can draw on to illustrate the structural injustice that impacts people at my community partner site is the fact that many people at my community partner site are living in poverty. Many of the children at Davidson Middle School are young, underprivileged students who live in tiny apartments with multiple people living in those apartments. Because a lot of them live in poverty, there is structural injustice among those children and the children who have more money and are not living in poverty. That is because the children who have more money have more access to resources, and they are thus able to excel much further in national testing than the children who are living in poverty. Another structural injustice that impacts the people at my community partner site is the ability to get good grades. Since many children who are living in poverty don’t have a quiet place to do homework, they are unable to get good grades. In addition, when they need help with their homework, they have no one to turn to because their parents can’t help them, and their parents don’t have the money to afford tutors to help the succeed in school. Therefore, the structural injustice of not being able to get good grades due to not having enough money to afford the resources to get those grades is something that deeply impacts the people at my community partner site.

It is important for me to “bear witness” because I need to be the one to spread the word that structural injustice/violence is a big problem. Many people in the world may not know that structural injustice is happening among many people living in poverty. Therefore, as a person who has a chance to help children who are suffering from poverty, it is important that I bear witness and spread the word in order to let others know about this issue so other people know that structural injustice is something big and come to find a solution. Also, if more people don’t believe that structural injustice is a problem, I can be the person to let them know that it is true since I have actually witnessed it in my experiences. The more people are aware that structural injustice/violence is a problem, the more people can come up with solutions to address the issue of structural injustice and violence. Therefore, it is important for me to bear witness so I can spread the word to others and find solutions to the problem, and so I can be the person to convince others who don’t believe in structural injustice and violence that structural injustice and violence is a big problem happening among many people living in poverty today.

Now What? The concept of “accompaniment” informs my role and relationships at my community partner site because it allows me to understand what the children at Davidson Middle School are going through and it allows me to support the children when they are facing difficult problems. By helping the children with the problems they are facing in their academic studies, I am accompanying them. Even though I am not actually going anywhere with the children, I am indirectly present on their journey through school. That is because I am guiding them as they go through each subject. For example, the children I am tutoring are learning algebra in their math class. By sitting down with them, showing them how to do the problems, and guiding them when they are stuck, I am accompanying them because I am going through their “math journey” with them, and I am supporting them whenever they are stuck. There are many times when the children have been discouraged because they have told me that they don’t like math, and they find math to be something very difficult for them. However, I accompanied them by being there for them and supporting them. I remember telling them that I understood how it felt like when I was in their position, and I told them that they could get through all of the math problems even though it was difficult. I also told them that I would always be there for them, and they were not alone in this journey to conquer all the math problems. Therefore, these words of encouragement helped the children to have the motivation to keep going and do their work even though their work was so tough. I agree with Farmer that “expertise along will not solve the difficult problems” (6). When I was helping the children, it wasn’t my expertise that helped them to keep going and finish all the math problems. Although I needed to be knowledgeable in the subject, there were times where my expertise did not help. An example of this is similar to the one I mentioned above. Many times when I was helping the children, they began to question why they should learn math, and they began to feel so discouraged because they did not like the subject. However, in these times, it wasn’t my expertise that encouraged them to keep going. It was the sense of comfort and support I offered them when they were discouraged that helped them to keep going. In addition, they had to be willing to cooperate with me, and they had to be open to let me help them. Because the children were open to letting me help them and because they were willing to cooperate with me, we were able to work together as a team to finish the math take home test in the amount of time we had together. Therefore, the concept of “accompaniment” informs my role and relationship at Davidson Middle School because it allows me to play my role of being a supportive, helpful tutor, and it helps me to build my relationship with the children since they know that I will be there to support and accompany them, work together with them as a team, and go with them on their strenuous journey no matter where it leads.

As of right now, I do not have any ideas about how “accompaniment as a policy” might be used to address the structural issues I have described above.