Poverty

To what extent did volunteering change the way you think about the poor?

Ryan Bubb, Response-Ability, Washington, DC

I worked as a teacher in a Latino community, and the experience reinforced for me the inequalities that exist in our nation and our world. Many of the students had a difficult time with school, for a variety of reasons - poor English skills, parents who lacked the time and / or knowledge to properly support them, learning disabilities, etc. They faced challenges that I never had to deal with. The experience reinforced to me that we do not live in a perfect meritocracy - that the situation you are born into has a huge impact on your educational achievement and future socioeconomic status. 

Christina Neill, Jesuit Volunteer Corps- Northwest, Yakima, WA

I am not sure that it changed the way I feel, but I definitely had a sense of solidarity with the poor while living simply with my community.  Three years later, now I am back in a direct service position in my internship as a geriatric case manager, I struggle with the disparity of the economic resources between myself and my clients.

Dani Clark Scano, L'Arche, Rome, Italy

Spending a year in a community with handicapped people radically changed my idea of what poverty was. Initially, I felt somewhat guilty, having chosen a seemingly posh placement site (Rome, Italy), but the handicapped taught me the poverty of body and spirit. Vittorio experienced his poverty every time he tried to talk and couldn’t; while Giorgio’s violent outbursts were the result of the poverty of years of abusive care giving.