How Does Poverty Affect the Health of the Community?
When a person or family lives in poverty, lack of nutrition and the stress of never having enough has a negative impact on their health. However, they are unable to pay for healthcare to address these concerns. If an entire community is struggling to find work in order to make ends meet, you have multiple and rampant health concerns across the board. How does poverty affect the health of the community? Everyone is now at risk for more and more complicated health concerns.
The World Bank tells us, “Poverty is a major cause of ill health and a barrier to accessing health care when needed. This relationship is financial: the poor cannot afford to purchase those things that are needed for good health, including sufficient quantities of quality food and health care. But, the relationship is also related to other factors related to poverty, such as lack of information on appropriate health-promoting practices or lack of voice needed to make social services work for them.”[1]
Ill health, The World Bank continues, then turns that poverty into a cycle. Without good health, a person cannot work, cannot make money and cannot afford healthcare. And on it goes. So, imagine an entire village where most people are out of work. Without enough food to eat and with the stress of living in constant survival mode, you have home after home of families with failing health.
GFA World wants to help end these cycles. Addressing sustainable income is one way to interrupt the cyclical nature of the poverty and health crisis. GFA does this in many ways, but one proven way is through our gift catalog. By providing farm animals gifted by donors like you, GFA can help a family find the long-term employment they need in order to eat properly, care for their bodies and get the medical attention they need so that small health concerns don’t escalate into tragedies.
Two goats, a pair of chickens, a cow, a water buffalo: These animals may not be ones we come into contact with daily, but they can be the lifeline a family needs. Not only will that person or family begin to have regular income by selling their farm animals or the products they produce, but there are now nourishing supplies available for others in the community to purchase: fresh milk, eggs and cheese.
Health in one family means hope can spread to others. And it’s not just the animals GFA wants to give them; it’s the hope of Jesus Christ, shared by GFA missionaries, the ones who pass on your gifts to the families. Pray through the catalog today and change a life or more with your gift.
Learn more about the effects of poverty and how GFA is helping!
[1] “Poverty and Health.” The World Bank. August 25, 2014. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health/brief/poverty-health.