Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi My name is Faiza and I am a second year dental hygiene student. For our presentation we decided to
cover the issue of poverty. Our intial plan was to interview potential candidates in the city of Welland
about their experiences with poverty. However, during one of our group meetings we came to realize that all of us had something in common-
all of us had experienced relative poverty at some point in our lives. For some of us it came through unexpected in events in our lives,
and for others it was just due to the country we were born in. Relative poverty is when one can afford
the basic necessities of life without maintaining an average standard of living.
I for one, had an experience with relative poverty while growing up in Pakistan.
In the next few clips you will be hearing my experience with relative poverty followed by
Fareida, April and Melissa's experiences
(Instrumental music plays while pictures are shown of poverty in Pakistan)
I begin my story with the meaning of social class in Pakistan. Social class in Pakistan has more to do
with ascribed status (which is what we are born with) rather than achieved status (which one can get through education and employment).
In Pakistan there is always rivalry going on between the Punjabi and the Muhajirs.
In most cases it doesn't even matter if you are well educated if you are not a Punjabi.
Punjabi are those who are actually native to the country of Pakistan- meaning they have always been living there
While Muhajirs are those who actually migrated from India to Pakistan during the partition that took place
that separated Pakistan and India as two different countries. Despite having the same culture and religious beliefs,
if you have migrated from India then you still referred to as a migrant or "muhajir" in Pakistan.
instead of being called a Pakistani. My family would classed as muhajirs. It is becasue of this social inequality that we had
to face relative poverty in Pakistan. My dad was a chemical engineer who actually studied in England
before going back to Pakistan. But despite his qualifications he was never promoted in his company
because he was not a Punjabi. Because of his job actually we fell into the middle class in Pakistan.
But even with that we were not able to afford to live in a home that was secure.
The neighbourhood we could afford to live in was not always safe. I remember at the age of 9 hearing
gun shots outside our house and finding out that my next door neighbour had passed away.
I remember our family closing all the lights in our house during curfew hour to make it appear as if no one was home.
I remember waking up the next morning and walking to the grocery store and finding it caved in with bullets.
And most of all I remember my Mom in panic everytime my Dad left for work and always praying that he would return home safely.
All this happened because we were Muhajirs and not Punjabi and clearly did not deserve the same status as the people that are native to Pakistan.
Just because of that reason we could not afford to live in a safer neighbourhood.
that most Punjabis were at an advantage of.
I find the story of the Muhajirs very funny because
in Indian we are known as non-Indians even though our ancestors lived in India for so many years
and in Pakistan we are not as Pakistani either because we migrated from India
so we are referred to as migrants most of the time
This is my experience with relative poverty that has made me into the person I am today
It was actually because of these experiences that my Dad decided to come to Canada
and it is these experiences that have shaped me into a hard worker who hopes to
achieve a higher social class through the education and the achievements that I hopefully
will be able to achieve in Canada
(Music plays again during slides about poverty in Afghanistan)
My name is Fareida. I am a second year dental hygiene student. I am from Afghanistan.
When we were in Afghanistan my father had an exporting business. We were one of the richest
families in Afghanistan. We had tons of poor neighbours. Some of neighbours didn't even have
food to eat. All they use to eat was like onions, water and just a piece of bread. But my father he helped
people as much as he could. We use to give them food, clothing, and father even paid for a women's rent for two years.
But eventually my father lost all his business due to the wars. We were forced to move to Pakistan.
We were eleven people in our family and when we moved to Pakistan we didn't have
enough money to rent a room. But eventually we rented a small size room and it was so small that
during bedtime I could not stretch out my legs - it was like so tiny. We lived in Pakistan for 8 years and
in all those years I never had breakfast and I never had dinner. The only time we ate was around
three o'clock. I remember I used to eat as much as I could and I use to eat till my stomach started
hurting because I felt like this is the only time I could eat food, so I should eat as much as I can.
We never had vegetables, we never had fruits. When my family and I moved to Canada, again we
faced poverty. We were on welfare for the first two years and we also used the food banks.
for the first two years. I remember how me and my younger brother we use to go to the foodbanks and
it took us an hour and a half. We use to change three buses and walk another 15 minutes.
Basically I never had a good childhood.
I remember when I was in Afghanistan, in the morning
when I woke up my kidneys would hurt because of the
sounds of the bombs during all of the nights.
Then we use to wake up in the morning and see who was still alive in the neighbourhood.
I have seen dead bodies. I have seen people get killed.
I feel very lucky that now I am in Canada because I feel very safe.
At least I can sleep well during the nights.
Feeling that I am safe and that I will be alive tomorrow.
(Instrumental music plays during picture slide show about poverty in Canada)
My name is April and I am here today to share with you my experience in regards to relative poverty.
When I was seventeen years old I had my first daughter and needed to rely on social
assistance. This was very difficult for me . I had hardships. I do recall one instance
when I needed medication for my daughter. She ahs a high fever and a bad cough. So I needed Tylenol and cough syrup.
I didn't have fifteen dollars to go and get medication that I needed.
I had to go over to my neighbours that I didn't know very well and ask them for the medication.
Thanks goodness they had some and I got some money the next day and went and bought the medication that she needed.
But this was just very very embarrassing and a hard thing to do.
There were other hardships as well. I didn't have a lot of clothing for us so I needed to shop
at the Goodwill for our clothing. Again this was kind of embarrassing if you've seen
somebody when you were coming in or going out.
The other thing was too was that there wasn't enough money to buy lots of the food
so a lot of the times I would go without food
just so that I could put food into my daughter's mouth
Things have changed drastically since then. I am now married and I do have two beautiful daughters and
a wonderful husband. I don't struggle financially anymore but I do hold those harships that I did have
in my heart. It makes me work harder for everything that I do have today and really appreciate
everything that I do have today.
(Instrumental music plays during slide show about student poverty)
Hi I'm Melissa. I am 23 and in the dental hygiene program and I am here to share my
experience of living in relative poverty as a student that many of you can relate to.
Basically I get by each month with paying my rent which doesn't leave me much for groceries
or maybe a little extra on the side for a new outfit.
Basically I don't get assistance from my parents.
They're not well off either, so I have to make ends meet.
with what I got. Basically I work in the summer, overtime, what I can do to make as much money as
to afford school and where I am today.
I haven't got any loans or anything of the sort.
So as of now, I don't have a job so I have to make my ends meet. I don't have a car, so I have to walk
everyday to and from school half an hour. Winter spring, summer it doesn't matter.
One in six Canadians live in poverty. We did this video to show just how much poverty there can be even within a small group of people like ourselves.
You may have noticed from the video that poverty exists at different levels. For me it was due to social class I belonged to in Pakistan.
For Fareida, it was due to the country that she was born in.
Relative poverty affected April because she was dependant on the welfare system that didn't provide her with enough food and clothing for
herself and her child. And it affected Melissa as a student who still struggles to makes ends meet.
After making this video , we all came to realize that poverty has a funny way of making us stronger.
It has taught us self-restraint. It has taught us to be more grateful for things we have and not take.
things for granted. And most of all--- it impacted our lives in a way that we will never forget
Subtitles by the Amara.org community