Poland week 4

I have now been in Poland for 4 weeks and I have gotten to know more Polish people while being here, and it has been very interesting to hear what they have been saying about the state of their own country.  The majority of them are frustrated with the high unemployment rates, and lack of good paying jobs.  I can understand this, especially families with several children that can’t pay for adequate meals for their children.  Many of them have a job, but just aren’t being paid enough to be able to support their family.




photo: Real World Image

 



photo: Real world image



A few weeks ago we visited a school in Chynow which was surprisingly well attended for a small town.  We helped out in the classroom, around noon we took the kids to lunch, it was amazing to see them all sitting patiently and eagerly waiting for the food.  Once the food was in front of them it was a feeding frenzy, there was not any food that was wasted.  I was later talking to a teacher, she told me 22% of children in Poland are under the poverty line(4).  For some of these children this is the best meal they have that day, for many it’s their only meal.  Many children are sent to school for the sole reason that they will get fed.  At this school in particular there are 120 students, and 50 can’t pay the $1.10 for the school lunch.  The only way they get food is because of the government agencies that must step in(3).  

In the past years Poland’s economy has been slowly improving.  Researchers have said that the reduction of poverty in Poland is directly linked to the amount of jobs that are able to be generated.  Just recently Poland has seen an increase of the amount of jobs, so that has created a small amount of hope for the Polish people(5).



photo: Robin Strand



(3) Bloomberg Businessweek. (2008). Pockets of Poverty in Poland. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/may2008/gb2008056_273599.htm

(4) The News. (2010). Poverty in Poland on the rise. Retrieved from http://www.thenews.pl/national/artykul135527_poverty-in-poland-on-the-rise.html

(5) Ideas. (2010). Economic growth, income distribution, and poverty in Poland during trasition. Retrieved from http://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/3467.html