Poverty in Brazil

I have been in contact with two people from outside the U.S., One is from Haiti name Sandra and she is very informative and seems excited to talk with another person interested in the early childhood field. I also am speaking with Cintia from Brazil.
Sandra has offered me information about the hardships that the Haitian people face everyday. A lot of the information provided by her has been what we have already heard in the news. Her experience has been that most of the people she works with live in poverty as well as the people they serve. She said that there are not many programs in place that provide assistance to those in need. She said that compared to the pictures she has seen of the U.S. that her whole country is in poverty. I assured her that if all she has seen is prosperity and riches, that that is not all that America is. Our poverty is just as bad as others but being a nation that prides itself on being powerful those images are rarely seen to the outsiders. I asked her if there are any people in her country that are advocates for trying to get help for those who truly need it, she answered by simply saying no.

Cinita from Brazil is a sweet woman. She has actually called me and I have spoke with her. Her English is very good. She told me that in Brazil she has seen much poverty compared to America, (she has lived in America for a brief stint). She said that her early childhood centers do not have the abilities to provide all the things that we have in America. Cintia said that in the center she works in that there are many people of different origins, some wealthy, some poor, and some homeless. She also said that the programs that are in place in Brazil are from the government and are only available to a small few. The government does not provide like the American government. She said that she noticed while in the U.S. that what we consider to be poverty is life in Brazil. They do not consider living with multiple families under one roof, poverty,  they will share everything they can in her country. She loves the sense of community that she sees in her country.

All in all I can see that even though we have poverty in the U.S. that we do not understand the half of what real poverty is. We see that people who have a two bedroom apartment and three families living there are poor, but what we don't realized is that this maybe the way they live where they are from. The American dream, as everyone calls it, is just that, the American dream. As Americans we do not have the sense of community and the comrodery that other countries do. We are all about each man for himself. It's about who can out-do who. This to me makes me sad and shows me that we are truly a spoiled nation and selfish as well.