Photo Album: Poverty

Many of us in highly developed countries are seldom exposed to the abject poverty that afflicts multiplied millions of our fellow man. It's hard to imagine the lives they lead, and the hopelessness they face. We've all seen many photos of those who so suffer. Here are few more, taken in the areas where we work.

This is in the area called Gobelé, where one of our schools is located. Thousands of people live in this shanty town without indoor plumbing or septic tanks. In the background, a woman is coming to draw water from a community faucet. She'll have to walk some distance with the heavy tub on her head. You can see there is litter everywhere. Much of the trash piles up in a canal behind our school.

This is also in Gobelé. You can see there are large houses on the hill where wealthy people live, overlooking the poor area below. The building behind the boy is the nicest in the neighborhood - our school building!

Street markets are common in our area, usually attended by women. This photo shows a few of the fruit and vegetable stands lining the one and only street in Biabou. Whatever meager amount the women earn here is generally their only income.

This stall is better equipped than most, and has an unusually large variety of merchandise for sale. Note the results of the day's shopping in the basket on the woman's head, and the children playing in the dirt under the tables.

Women and girls alike balance loads on their heads.

In the shanty towns, women and children have to fetch water from the community water pipe. To keep from having to lift the heavy load from the ground, the women place the nozzle of the hose in the tub while it is still on their head. Some must then trek uphill to their homes, taking care not to spill a drop.

Some teenaged girls are obligated to go into the streets and sell goods, earning a meager income that keeps them impoverished. They can end up spending their entire lives doing this (or something worse) because they lack an education that can provide a good job. Partners offers vocational training to girls such as these, free of charge, giving them a hope for a better future.

When you bless one of God's precious little ones, you are, in turn, blessed. When Barbara met the mother of Baby Barbara in 2002 on the streets of Abidjan's toughest neighborhood, the mother-to-be was eight months pregnant and sleeping on the streets. She was bewildered, scared, and hopeless, and had been bruised and battered by the father of her unborn baby. Today she enjoys a successful enterprise, safe housing, and is able to take care of Baby Barbara, thanks to the help from PATW. We rejoice to see a brighter future for both mother and child!