Hunger, stigma and education. These were the words that sprang forth when ATD Fourth World recently held a discussion on the theme of child poverty.  The words were all the more forceful for coming from people with personal experience of poverty.

Being in poverty does not make one a bad parent. It is not that simple. One can live in poverty and be a good parent, just as one can be wealthy and be a bad parent. One father and grandfather spoke for many when he said, “We always say our priority is making sure our children have a better education than we did. Because it is.”

And yet this desire to educate the next generation out of poverty is impacted upon by the wider situation. According to one young participant, “Our schools are determined by where we live, by our estates. That’s not the case for everyone. If their child’s school isn’t great, middle-class parents can pay for a tutor. Poor families can’t.”

As this last point proves, children do not live alone but with parents. So why is the issue of child poverty often framed away from the issues affecting the needs and the situation of both the family and the community in which the child is growing up? It is done this way so as to not only tug at society’s heart strings but also to make it possible to blame the parents for the poverty of the child. The upshot of this is that society can absolve itself of any responsibility for child poverty.

It is surely positive that the issue of child poverty is seen, even by government, as something to be tackled. The challenge for all of us, I believe, is to overcome the short-termism encouraged by focusing only on child  poverty when it is part of family poverty and community poverty. To tackle these wider issues we need to invest in people, not just children. Eradicating poverty means making a long-term investment in real education and real adequate housing. At some point, a child stops being a child and becomes a young adult and then an adult. What then if the only challenge to inequality we can muster is to focus on children alone. Child poverty goes so much further than that.

The conference aims to “challenge poverty in changing times”; an aim that highlights the words that underpin the United Nations-recognised International Day for the Eradication of Poverty held on 17 October every year:

“Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure these rights be respected is our solemn duty.”

The day was first marked in 1987, when more than one hundred thousand people gathered at the Trocadéro in Paris to honour the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger.

More than twenty years on, people of all backgrounds, beliefs and social origins continue to mark the day by renewing their commitment to fight poverty and showing their solidarity with those in poverty. They do so at different events held to commemorate the day across the world, from the United Nations in New York and the European Parliament in Brussels to Dar es Salaam, Ougadougou, Manila and Bangkok.

From the outset, the day has represented an opportunity to recognise the efforts and struggles of those living in poverty, and also been a chance for them to make their experiences and their concerns heard.

The only way to guarantee this has been to place genuine participation at the heart of the day’s celebration. In the words of one father who has been an active member of ATD Fourth World for more than twenty years, 17 October:

“… is a day to reflect on one’s own life and that of the many families we know who are experiencing poverty and facing hardships to pay the bills and the rent arrears. Today, we remember others who live in poverty and campaign for poverty to be eradicated. Poverty takes away your dignity; fighting for an end to poverty gives you your dignity back.”