How Investing in Moms Can End World Poverty

I live in Turkey, where these issues are discussed on a daily basis. There has been a steady flow of people from the rural areas to the cities since the 1950s, until just a few years ago the majority of the population was living in cities. Industry in the cities has been unable to meet employment demands, and recently has turned from big industry to what are basically sweatshops set up in apartments throughout the low income neighborhoods that employ young women and men from the neighborhood at long hours and low pay. These work places offer no long-term employment, and thus no health benefits, or possibility of advancement. Usually the young women quit when they have children and do not return to work as recent urbanization patterns are breaking up the extended families that used to provide child care.

The average income of a family in Turkey ( a whole family) is $5000.

Turks are wary of international help, because ›n the past it has always come back to bite them in the ass. For example, during the 50s Turkey was part of the Marshall Plan and received millions of dollars for development. One area of development was agriculture. the farmers were given loans (in dollars) to buy tractors. Something like 25,000 US-made tractors were sold this way. Not only were these peasants hooked up to international debt mechanisms, they soon realized that they would have to import all spare parts from the US in order to keep running their machines. This was beyond the purchasing ability of most farmers. In fact, it was this mechanization of agriculture that pushed many farm families off their lands and into the cities, where a whole host of other problems awaited them.

I read theses and dissertations at a graduate research institute. Studies about women and workers, income and debt, cross my desk regularly.

There was a study done this summer on micro-credit for women. To the surprise of everyone, the results showed that the majority of the women who took loans were unable to pay them back themselves. They had to resort to other loans with less favorable conditions to pay back the initial loan. These loans were usually from men in their families, rendering the women further dependent on them. Also, the kinds of businesses the women in the study tended to get involved in were low-growth, low return and most of the profits were then given to the head of the household, almost always men. It was concluded that the loans as presently applied indebt women more than helping them.

As for internationally funded training programs, the report said that while men take courses that train them for industry or white collar jobs, women choose to be trained in child and health care, which are low paying, non-growth jobs with no benefits (please note the word "choose").

The report concluded that the international funds for loans and training do not tend to help women "lift their families out of poverty." One side note was that the international funds usually help the organizations that arrange the credits and courses more than the individual clients.

I do not know what to do with this information. I was dismayed, reading the study. I suppose all that can be concluded is that present systems of aid do not really change much, so new systems must be developed. I personally believe that education is key. UNtil recently in Turkey only education up to 5th grade was required. Now it is to 8th grade and they are trying to make it 12th. There are an estimated one million children between the ages of 6 and 14 who are not enrolled in school (population of Turkey is 70 million) and 57% of them are girls. More than 50% of these 1 million children live in the remote and mountainous eastern and southeastern provinces. Per capita income in the southeast is barely 42% of the national average (this is about $250 dollars a month for a whole family and these families tend to have many children). In these area, it is not like the men are doing well and the women are not, or the the men have opportunities and the women do not: they are all oppressed and suffer in their poverty.

The majority of the world's population lives in poverty. There will have to be a major shift in consciousness to get the leaders to turn their attention from war profiteering and oil grabbing to helping the world's poor. I hope the GROWTH Act Petition can have an impact and draw attention to this issue.