Nowadays poverty is present in our world, and provably much more than what we can ever imagine. How many children do you think they have the same life conditions as us, the ones that we consider basic to live? I could not think how many children cannot eat an appropriate dish for each meal, or how many can’t drink drinking water -and to get some they water have to walk thousands of kilometers-, or how many cannot wear different clothes every day and have to wear the same ones for a long time…

 

I have chosen this picture because in my opinion it reflects what I have been talking about. We can see five children more or less of the same age, except one who seems to be younger and they are sharing a bowl which apparently have some rice in it, they are eating it with their own hands. They are wearing some ripped dirty different coloured clothes and, we can see too that they are also dirty and their hairs are in mess. One girl is wearing some bracelets and I could imagine that they have made them, provably someone has taught her how to do it and now for them it is a kind of distraction. This girl, the one who wears the bracelets, has his arm over the shoulders of the little one showing that she is taking care from him, provably they are family and she has the responsibility to take care and keep always an eye on him. This is a common responsibility that some young kids have to take due to the conditions that they have in these countries. At the same time if we look at the back of the picture we can see that the street is not in perfect conditions considering that there are some paving stone broken, also we can see that not all the street have the same ground. Do all these things make them sad? As we can see their faces show us that all these things are not reasons enough to take away their happiness. It is also true that we can see a funny smile in two of them and the other three don't show this expressive face, but if we look the young boy is pouting making a kind of funny face and maybe this is what they were doing in that moment just to get distracted and make them laugh between them. They don't care if they have to walk barefoot or if they don't have any utensil to eat because it is very likely that during all their lives they have done so. They have learnt that this is what they have to do, because this is what they have and there is no more. I think that this photo shows perfectly that what these young kids need is their own good company and they don't rely on what they have materially to be cheerful.

 

This is an astonishing example of the power of an image, how we can deduce things and suppose other just through it. It can move a whole country and convince them in order not to turn a blind eye to those who are suffering. So, maybe the essence of this distress is one pic but an image is nothing if we don’t give the importance we should to it. Yet, we must prevent this feeling doesn't go away from people, it should never end... unless poverty disappears. Remember that a piture is worth a thousand words.