Paulo has 8 children ranging in ages from 14 years to 6 months. Three of them walk 2 hours to school and 2 hours home. He told us that he used to live near the mines, but it wasn’t a safe place for children. He bought the land in the mountains where we visited him, and moved his family there. But he can’t grow enough in his fields to feed them all.
©2011 Amy Conner for World Vision
As we talked, his wife nursed their baby, surrounded by five of her beautiful but shy little ones (the older three were at school).
As we walked away, I couldn’t help wondering when the next baby would come.
In rural communities, we’ve seen a baffling series of contradictions about the value of children. On the one hand, their’s is a close-knit large-family culture. On the other hand, if a cow and a child are both sick, the family will usually seek care for the animal.
Rural Bolivian women believe that their role is to make babies, care for their animals, cook food, and make more babies. Their identity is wrapped up in this. They also have a real need for children to help them work their fields.
©2011 Amy Conner for World Vision
Bolivian men also see children as helpers for the farm. But the extra mouths to feed are an inexpressible strain. Almost all Bolivian children are abused sexually, physically, and verbally. If you were to take a U.S. class of 30 kids and move it to Bolivia, 27 of them will abused and 12 of those are sexually abused (both boys and girls).
Many parents just walk away. They usually go to find better work somewhere else, promising to send money home, but many never return and never send money. They just disappear.
How can you find your identity in child-bearing and then turn around and abandon your children?
It seems obvious to us that if you can’t afford to feed more children, you don’t have more children.
But it isn’t obvious to rural Bolivians.
I don’t know how to help Paulo and his wife. He is so underwater he doesn’t even know what his problems are, or how World Vision can help.
But it takes time. You can’t barge in, point your finger, and say “Stop having babies and here’s how. You can’t have sex with your spouse certain days.”
It’s far more complicated than that. You have to build trust which requires building friendships. You have to open their minds to new ideas through education. Children need to grasp a vision of their future that includes options like higher education, small business ventures, agricultural innovation, and giving back to their communities. Families need to embrace the value of children, the responsibility they have to each child, and their capacity to meet that responsibility.
©2011 Amy Conner for World Vision
World Vision does all of this in the communities within which they work. They also teach nutrition, cleanliness and sanitation, and healthy practices. They have the opportunity to teach about fertility, the reproductive cycle, and why and how to space pregnancies for the health and well-being of the mother.
Because unless they take ownership of their capacity to provide adequate care for the children they have, the cycle of poverty will only continue.
Join World Vision’s work with communities. For just $1 a day or 1/4 of a Starbucks latte, you can help break this cycle of poverty.
This post originally appeared on deepeerstory.com
Read more posts from the Bolivia bloggers team.
Hi Ted. Thank you for your comment. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to respond to your question fully as I begin a 24-hour journey back to the States in just a few hours. However, I’d like to recommend this post by a fellow team member as a good explanation of how the child sponsorship model World Vision follows does indeed break the cycle of poverty. http://rachelheldevans.com/child-sponsorship-skeptic
If you still have questions about what I wrote, I’d be happy to correspond further next week.
Have a blessed Sunday.
World Vision respects the customs of the communities in which it operates. Bolivia has a large Catholic population, so WV would never recommend a family planning method that the Catholic church does not support. In addition, there are financial concerns — most other methods cost at least a little money.
I believe in the mission of World Vision. I have supported World Vision and its programs in the past. I am confused by your statements about the cycle of poverty. In one sentence you say “unless they take ownership of their capacity for the children they have, the cycle of poverty will only continue”. Then you say that “For just $1 a day or 1/4 of a Starbucks latte, you can help break this cycle of poverty”. Please explain how $1 a day affects their taking ownership of their capacity to provide adequate care for the children they have and breaks the cycle of poverty. Please consider this before you writing a cogent response.
Poverty has little or nothing to do with one’s ability to have sex or to have children. Poverty is a material condition or circumstance of human existence. Sex is a natural procreative behavior found in every living animal. Solutions to the issue of poverty are generally economic and political. Issues of children born in poverty are generally enviromental, social and behavioral. Education is a tool proven to assist in the decline of birth rate among some people in poverty. There are other tools available to help reduce birth rates among the poor but the reality is that controlling the birth rate among poverty stricken people is not resolvable without immense cost.
The example of Paulo does not seem to include issues of morality or religion or even crime. Poor people have every right to make life decisions that affect their economic status. Having children in poverty is one of those decisions. What is assessed as irresponsible decision making is no less than a choice made and a result occuring. Perhaps the real issue is how to reduce or eliminate poverty.
Bolivia, unlike America does not allocate significant state funds to the raising of children in poverty. Many other countries also refrain from this costly endeavor. Poverty contains many issues affecting the lives of those trapped in its grip. Raising the standard of living and enabling people in poverty to choose a better life would seem a logical solution. However this solution requires more.
Jesus said “the poor you will always have with you…” (Matthew 6:11; Mark 14:7; John 12:8), and it is written “there will always be poor people in the land…”(Deu. 15:11) I ask, what is God’s way of handling poverty and children born into poverty?
Is World Vision against any type of birth control except the rhythm method? Just curious.
Joy,
Your sex and poverty blog brings home the day-to-day struggles and the mindset so ingrained in poverty stricken areas. My heart was touched with the statement “if a cow and a child are both sick, the family will usually seek care for the animal.” For a moment I let myself empathize with the plight of Paulo and families like his. Then the fragility of the situation made the decision to do the right thing less obvious. The Lord bless you for sharing this with us and for all of the WV staff on the ground in Bolivia and all around the globe.