How to End Poverty: 9 Ways (Plus, How to Do Your Part)

Poverty is such a big issue that it can seem impossible to stop. But we’ve seen children break free from the chains of poverty with our own eyes. What’s the solution? Meeting each child’s physical, emotional and spiritual needs while coming alongside them with encouragement and hope.

And that’s where we, all of us, come in.

Here, you’ll learn how to end poverty by understanding the many ways Compassion works to help children in need. You’ll also learn actionable ways you can do your part to stop poverty, starting today.

What's Here:

• 1. Protect Them From Harm
• 2. Give Medical Care
• 3. Supply Nutrition
• 4. Improve Access to Water
• 5. Deliver Education
• 6. Empower Income Generation
• 7. Support During the First Year
• 8. Bring Relief From Disaster
• 9. Share the Gospel
• 6 Ways to Do Your Part in the Fight Against Poverty

How to End Poverty: 9 Ways to Help Children in Need

Poverty affects a child’s entire well-being:

• Physically, children may be sick or hungry.
• Emotionally, they may feel scared or forgotten.
• Spiritually, they may be overwhelmed with hopelessness.

To stop poverty, we must meet the critical needs of each child’s body, mind and spirit as they grow. By doing so, we empower them to create brighter futures for themselves, their families and their communities. And as a result, we can break the cycle of poverty.

Let’s dive into nine ways we must step in to meet these critical needs.

1. Protect Them From Harm

Families living in poverty are overwhelmed by need. In desperation, parents sometimes feel as if they have no choice but to ask their children to work to help support the family. Other parents are often forced to leave their children unattended while they find work.

These circumstances mean that children living in poverty are vulnerable to serious harm, such as child labor, sexual abuse, child trafficking and domestic violence. Unfortunately, these children also experience physical and psychological trauma, damaging their overall health.

For example, physical violence and abuse can lead to injuries that keep them from attending school. Missing school can result in children being unable to find a job when they get older. Trauma can also lead to mental health concerns, such as depression.

All these challenges can perpetuate the cycle of poverty in the lives of children. If a child is unable to get an education and the job skills needed for employment, they’ll likely live in poverty as an adult, raising their children in the same circumstances they grew up in.

So helping children in poverty means protecting them from trauma, abuse and violence.

Doing Our Part

At Compassion, child protection is our highest priority. We work to prevent all kinds of exploitation and abuse. And when child abuse is reported, we intervene quickly, work to provide healing and empower children to be active in their own protection.

For example, we deliver age-appropriate training to every child in our program. This helps them understand what violence looks like and what they can do if they’re being mistreated. We also appoint child protection officers tasked with identifying, reporting and monitoring cases of violence or abuse against the children we serve.

2. Give Medical Care

Many impoverished communities lack medical facilities, so families living in poverty struggle to access health care. They may have to travel long distances to get to a clinic, which comes at an impossible cost.

If they do find care, the cost of medication and other treatments often drains what little resources they do have, pushing them deeper into poverty.

And if they survive, children with medical issues may not be able to attend school, play with their friends or participate in other activities that support healthy development. This can stunt their growth and prevent them from becoming self-sufficient adults as they grow.

Ending poverty means improving access to basic medical care, such as preventative checkups.

Doing Our Part

Each child we serve receives an annual medical checkup to screen for common illnesses and health issues. We also step in when children are sick or injured, providing medicine and other interventions when necessary, such as wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs and even emergency surgery.

By providing medical care, we’re easing the burden on families in need while protecting children from injuries and illnesses that threaten their lives. Watch Ricardo’s story to see the power of medical care.

3. Supply Nutrition

The world is facing the most severe food shortage in 70+ years. And children living in poverty are the most vulnerable. Around 148 million children are chronically malnourished, leading to serious consequences, from depression to stunted growth and even death.

Unfortunately, the consequences of malnutrition can impact a child for life. For example, children who are malnourished get sick more often and struggle to perform in school. This limits their opportunities to reach their full potential as adults, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

By providing children in poverty with access to quality nutrition, we can help them grow and develop as God intended.

Doing Our Part

Compassion monitors every child we serve for malnutrition, intervening to provide quality food when needed. Children who visit our child development centers receive healthy meals that fuel their bodies with the nutrients they need to grow healthy and strong.

For kiddos who have more complex needs, such as those with chronic illnesses like diabetes, we provide the special diet they need to thrive.

4. Improve Access to Water

Water is one of the most critical yet basic needs for life. But according to UNICEF, one in five children doesn’t have enough water to meet their daily needs. This impacts every aspect of a child’s life.

These children are forced to drink water that’s contaminated, leading to illnesses like hepatitis and even cholera. Some children must walk miles to access water, carrying heavy jugs to and from their homes.

Traveling for water means these children miss school because water transportation becomes a job in itself. It also places them in physical danger of injury or violence while traveling. In addition, for a child’s family, not having water makes it impossible to grow crops that could provide food and income.

Safe and clean water alone can reverse all the above, changing the lives of impoverished children and their families.

Doing Our Part

Compassion works to provide communities with essential water infrastructure, such as wells, water storage, rainwater harvesting systems and filtration systems. We also provide children with hygiene education, ensuring they know how to take care of their bodies and protect themselves from disease.

5. Deliver Education

Brighter futures start with education. But education can be hard to come by for children living in poverty. Why?

• Families can’t afford it: School supplies, uniforms (which are required in many countries), travel and other necessities for attending school are expensive for impoverished families.
• Work takes priority: Many families are so desperate for food that they send their children to work instead of school. When it comes to accessing right-now needs such as food, everyone must work to provide.
• Cultural differences: In low- and middle-income countries, young women and girls are more likely to be denied school. Many cultural norms force them to marry young instead of getting an education.

To break down these barriers, we must provide children with educational opportunities. When we empower children with knowledge, we help them grow in confidence, pursue careers and build incomes that support them as they leave poverty behind.

Plus, they become positive influences in their communities, inspiring other children to reach for more too.

Doing Our Part

Children in our program receive the resources they need to get an education, including books, uniforms and supplies. We also connect children with tutors, mentors and advisors to support and encourage them during their educational journey.

6. Empower Income Generation

Accessing living essentials, from food to medical care, comes at a cost. Unfortunately, families in poverty live on less than $2.15 a day. Many families can’t afford their daily needs, let alone what their children need to thrive, such as educations.

We can support these families by helping caregivers access the skills and resources they need to generate sufficient incomes. This way, families can provide for themselves and even help others around them, breaking the generational cycle of poverty.

Doing Our Part

Compassion helps caregivers build sustainable businesses through business classes and training. We also support young entrepreneurs (like Maisha below), providing the vocational training, microloans and other tools they need to create incomes using their God-given talents.

7. Support During the First Year

The first year of a baby’s life is critical to their well-being. It’s during this first year that a baby’s brain and body develop in leaps and bounds. Proper nutrition and medical care are important to ensure healthy growth.

Unfortunately, babies living in poverty are often victims of preventable diseases and issues such as stunting, which means impaired growth and development. These roadblocks have many lifelong consequences that make it hard to leave poverty behind, such as learning difficulties and costly ongoing medical issues.

By stepping in to support babies at their most vulnerable stage, we can prevent the earliest complications of poverty that threaten their futures.

Doing Our Part

Compassion’s Nurturers initiative provides physical and emotional support to moms and babies. Through Nurturers, we come alongside mothers during their pregnancies to deliver prenatal care, offer parenting classes and connect them to a supportive community of other moms.

Once a baby is born, we provide ongoing care, training and one-on-one biblical mentoring to support new parents and their babies.

8. Bring Relief From Disaster

To put an end to poverty, we must also step in where it begins. And disaster can be a starting point. Disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and wars impact millions of children around the globe each year.

Even families with a sufficient and stable income might suddenly find themselves in the throes of extreme poverty, without safe shelter, food, water or medical care. And for families already struggling before disaster, one event can steal the few resources they do have, pushing them further into poverty.

Doing Our Part

When disaster strikes, Compassion works with local church leaders and volunteers to respond immediately, providing resources such as medical supplies, emergency food, shelter and trauma counseling. This support helps families get back on their feet, preventing poverty from gaining more ground.

9. Share the Gospel

Disaster relief, medical care, nutrition, education … these interventions are nothing without the gospel. Children who live in poverty experience many challenges that threaten their hope. However, by hearing the gospel, they understand that true hope is eternal and found in the Overcomer, Jesus.

When children come to know Jesus, they’ll start to see that it doesn’t matter what the next day holds. With Jesus, they have a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).

And that truth? It inspires children to see beyond their dark circumstances and into the light, releasing the hold poverty has on their hearts and minds.

Doing Our Part

Everything we do is centered around Christ. We share the hope of the gospel with every child we serve in a way they can understand. And as they grow, we provide ongoing spiritual guidance, helping them build a life-giving and long-lasting relationship with Jesus.

6 Ways to Do Your Part in the Fight Against Child Poverty

You might be thinking, “But how can I possibly do any of those things? I’m just one person, on the other side of the world.”

We hear you. Physically protecting a child from violence or providing them with medical care may not be something you can do on your own. But when we come together, the impossible becomes possible.

You can join us in the fight against poverty by taking any of these simple next steps.

1. Learn

When you understand poverty, you’ll be able to have more impactful conversations and pray more specific prayers for those in need. In other words, you’ll become a better advocate for children living in poverty.

The first step is learning what poverty is, why it exists and its impact. Arming yourself with knowledge about poverty will prepare you to act.

Take Action

• Get to know the facts: First, dive into the basic facts about poverty. To get started, do some simple online research and see if you can answer these questions: What is poverty? What causes poverty? How many children live in poverty? What countries struggle with poverty?
• Use your resources: There are so many great resources online that can help you understand poverty. For example, the World Bank provides everything from statistics to articles about the past, present and future of poverty. Britannica is also a useful resource to bookmark.
• Learn from the perspective of those in need: To get to know poverty on a deeper level, take some time to read stories of those who have lived in it. You can find plenty of true and inspiring stories here.

2. Advocate

When we see the word “advocate,” many of us instantly think of an inspiring public speaker moving a crowd of people to tears and action. But the truth is, we can all be advocates, even if public speaking isn’t our forte.

Being an advocate simply means standing up for those in need. When we advocate for others, we help bring about change by being a voice for those without. And there are so many easy ways to do so!

Take Action

• Talk to friends and family: Poverty is often an uncomfortable subject that many avoid. But to see change, we need to talk about it! You can help build awareness by using the facts you’ve learned to start a conversation with friends and family. For example, send them a poverty statistic via text message and ask for their thoughts. It might just move them to join you in the fight against poverty!
• Use your social media platforms: You can build awareness by using your social media platforms too. For example, share a charity’s social posts on your own feed or make a video talking about poverty to share with your platform.
• Start a fundraiser: Want to take your advocacy up a notch? Start a fundraiser for a charity that supports those living in poverty. It doesn’t have to be hard, either. Use an online tool like GoFundMe or even host a garage sale and send your proceeds to your charity of choice.

3. Pray

The Bible tells us that “nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight” (Hebrews 4:13, NIV). He sees those living in poverty, he understands their circumstances and he knows how to intervene, even when we don’t.

When we pray for the impoverished, we invite God to provide what they need. We stand in the gap, inviting God to do in his strength what we can’t do on our own. And that’s powerful!

Take Action

• Pray with us daily: Join us in prayer daily for children living in poverty. Grab a prayer calendar, print it and place it on your fridge or elsewhere in your home. Each day, you’ll see what we’re praying for, and you can join us in faith.
• Set prayer reminders: Set a reminder in your phone or put a sticky note somewhere you’ll see it daily as a reminder to stop and pray for those in need.
• Start a prayer group: Get together with some close friends, family members or church members to pray for those in poverty. You can meet in person to pray or even start a group text chat where you take turns sharing prayers.

4. Volunteer

Many charity organizations depend on volunteers to build awareness and support those in need. Offering to volunteer your time and talent to a charity is a great way to support those working to end poverty.

Take Action

• Get to know your gifts and talents: God gave all of us special gifts to use when helping others. What are your gifts? For example, perhaps you’re great at graphic design. You could volunteer to create images for a charity to share online. Or maybe you have a knack for event planning. You could help a charity plan upcoming events to get even more people involved.
• Reach out to poverty-focused charities: Is there a poverty-focused charity you’d love to volunteer for? Reach out! Give them a call or send them an email asking about volunteer opportunities.
• Find opportunities online: You can also use online resources such as VolunteerMatch to help you find opportunities in your community and around the world. It’s also easy to use the search engine of your choice to find charities in need of volunteers. Just type in “volunteer opportunities in [Insert Your Community]” to start your search.

5. Give

Children and families living in poverty lack access to even the most basic of needs, from medical care to clean water. A surefire way to change that? Donating!

Take Action

• Donate to a poverty-focused cause close to your heart: Maybe you want to specifically donate clean water to a child in desperate need of it. Or maybe you want to provide educational opportunities. Compassion has a variety of funds you can choose from, depending on what you feel called to support
• Consider setting up a monthly gift: Busyness gets the best of all of us. If you want to make sure you’re giving consistently, set up a monthly gift. These donations will come out of your account automatically, ensuring your gifts are regularly getting to families in need.
• Gather your pocket change to donate: One easy way to give is to gather all the pennies your pockets accumulate throughout the month and then donate at the end of the month. Don’t use a lot of cash? There are apps, like the RoundUp App, that will help you donate your “change” from card purchases too!

6. Sponsor

As we said before, we’ve seen children break the chains of poverty time and time again with our own eyes. In fact, after talking to Compassion program participants in the Dominican Republic, we found that 97% of them were released from poverty. And 93% had their lives completely changed!

This is further proof that meeting a child’s physical, emotional and spiritual needs works. And by meeting these needs, one child at a time, we can stop poverty in its tracks.

You can help us meet the needs of a child’s body, mind and spirit now through child sponsorship.

Child sponsorship means donating to a child monthly. Through your donation, you empower a child’s local church to deliver the medical care, education and nutrition support they need to thrive. Most importantly, the child will hear the gospel, which changes everything.

As a sponsor, you’ll also be able to write messages to the child you sponsor, providing them with love and encouragement. Your support will be a constant source of hope as a child journeys out of poverty.

Take Action

• Sponsor a child who shares your birthday or has a special need: You can choose a child to sponsor who shares your birthday or even the birthday of a loved one. You can also choose a child with a special need close to your heart. Or you can choose a child from a specific country. Can’t choose? We can select a child for you!
• Sponsor a child with your family: Why not bring your family together by sponsoring together? Pool your funds and sponsor a child or even multiple children.
• Sponsor a child with those in your church: Sponsoring with those in your church can help you build awareness while making a greater impact. Gather your small group and sponsor a child together. Or teach the children in your Sunday school class the power of generosity by raising funds to sponsor a child.

None of us can stop poverty on our own. It takes all of us working together and standing in the gap for the little ones in need. Will you partner with us in our mission of releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name?