What Is Poverty Reduction?

Taden’s story illustrates how this is true. His father died when Taden was a little boy, sending his family into a financial crisis. He and his mother had to work the land they owned, leaving him no opportunity for education; the family’s survival depended on his labor. When Taden grew up, he got married and had two children. He still worked in the fields around the village, with very little to show for his back-breaking efforts. He was doing everything he could, but even working multiple jobs would not let him gain ground on his family’s poverty. Taden had to make the difficult decision to deprive his children of education to keep them alive. The family traveled to a neighboring country to work in the sugarcane fields for half of the year, a primitive arrangement with no toilet let alone a school. Taden’s children had a bleak future ahead of them.