Blog Action Day: Teaching Kids About Poverty

Blog Action Day is a collaborative effort of bloggers all over the world to raise awareness about issues and provide ideas for taking action. This year's topic is Poverty. I primarily blog about motherhood and learning, so my focus for Blog Action Day will be ways that parents can teach their children about caring for the poor and how they can serve others together as a family.

Reading and discussing books with children is a wonderful way to teach and inspire them! Consider reading these stories about those living in poverty and talk with your kids about the themes they address like compassion, generosity, and the power of giving.

Candace Fleming’s Boxes for Katje is based on an experience the author’s mother had following World War II when she sent toothpaste, a pair of socks, a bar of soap, and a note of good wishes to Europe. An American girl named Rosie who lives in Mayfield, Indiana, sends a box to Katje, a girl who lives in war-torn, poverty-stricken Olst, Holland.

Mary and Rich Chamberlin's Mama Panya's Pancakes: A Village Tale from Kenya tells the story of a boy who has very little himself but has a generous, caring heart for others in his Kenyan village.

Patricia Polacco's An Orange for Frankie is a nice selection to read at Christmas time and centers on a family that feeds the hungry during the Great Depression and a young boy who gives away one of his gifts to help someone less fortunate. Other holiday titles with similar themes are Kathleen Bostrom's Josie's Gift and Kate DiCamillo's Great Joy.

Ginger Howard's A Basket of Bangles: How a Business Begins is a story about five poor women in Bangladesh who join together to get and pay back a loan and encourage one another as they start and grow their own small businesses. The book is based on the microlending efforts of the Grameen Bank, a microfinance bank and community development organization that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 with its founder, Muhammad Yunus.

Heifer International aims to help end world hunger and poverty through self-reliance and sustainability. Several children's books about Heifer's mission include Page McBrier's Beatrice's Goat, The Chicken and the Worm, Winter in Songming, and the upcoming release, Once There Was and Was Not: A Modern Day Folk Tale from Armenia. You can find related lesson plans for these books and other educational materials for use at home and or in your child's classroom here. Heifer's educational resources "introduce students to the issues of hunger, poverty and environmental sustainability while satisfying educators’ need for quality supplemental materials. The material consists of lesson plans, activities (for inside and outside the classroom), stories, video documentaries and more."

Here are a few of the many ways kids and families can take action and fight poverty together:

• Choose holiday gifts from the catalogs of organizations that work to alleviate poverty such as World Vision, Food for the Poor, Heifer International, and Samaritan's Purse.
  
• Fill a shoebox with small gifts for a child in need through Operation Christmas Child.
  
• Serve at a local homeless shelter, food pantry, or soup kitchen with your kids.
  
• Sponsor a hungry child through Food for the Hungry, World Vision, Compassion International or another organization of your choice.
• Feed an orphan for a month for only $5 through Children's HopeChest.
• Get involved in Kids LAKE's monthly projects.
  
• See The Family Quilt for other small steps you can take to help the poor, care for those in need, and plant the seeds of compassion and mercy in your children.
• Share your ideas in the comments!

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. [John 3:17-18 (NIV)]