In the article below, the Brussels authorDaniel Soil, reports on the inequality faced by each child. UFB supports actions to fight this poverty. And in order to bounce back, you probably need to be given a significant boost. This is what United Fund for Belgium is all about.
What can we do without ?
Give up school trips ? Holidays ? Do not buy new clothes? Shoes? Bedding? Eliminate meat from the diet, decrease the intake of fruits and vegetables? (The food packages exist, but they are not enough, they are not adapted to real meals, there is always a lot of one thing and not enough of another thing that is needed).
Limited leisure in front of the TV ? Turn down the heating? Forget about school supplies ? Depravation from games, stop inviting friends ? Cut down the internet ? Move: go to a smaller home ?
Each person suffering from poverty makes their own choices.
Fall into poverty, in one go or little by little. Seeing reserves slowly disappear and ending up with almost nothing. Less than a thousand. Less than a hundred. It is good to listen to the precarious to understand and imagine their difficulties. To put oneself in the place of. Establish a short circuit between yourself and the person. And therefore, we think about helping.
To experience what life must be like when family allowance is used for mere survival. And that in case of divorce, it is transferred from one parent to the other. And therefore, we think about helping.
And then there’s all that paperwork to fill in! Every application is the subject of a document: open a file, produce a deed, a certificate. This is not self-evident, nor it is easy. Precariousness leads to a loss of reference points. And the unfortunate fact is that public services do not always adapt to the events of the disadvantaged and the less fortunate.
Living in the too little of everything gives a specific view of the world. You shrivel up, you become smaller. Poverty leads to a lack of confidence. Some people give up accessible aid, such as secondary school study grants, for fear of being overwhelmed by the procedures. Precariousness and poverty generate silence.
And let us not confuse a voluntarily simple choice of life with an obligatory, imposed deprivation.
But living in poverty also means practicing intelligence full time, in order to get by, in order to survive! It develops. Cela forme. It trains. The lucky ones do not have a monopoly on foresight. The poor do not necessarily need to be educated. They know. But they need a sensitive impulse, they need to be heard and seen. .
This is what the associations and projects supported by United Fund for Belgiumstrive for with all their heart.. Take a minute and think about it.
Daniel Soil
Daniel Soil, Public writer, Honorary Diplomat Wallonia-Brussels.
