My writing fingers are a little rusty, but there is no better day to bring them out than on Blog Action Day 2008. Last year I wrote about how you can reduce your daily waste. This years topic is about poverty.

Teaching children about poverty, while living in a society that doesn’t talk about it very often in daily conversation, makes it harder to teach children the concept of poverty. Including the topic in their lives and making a habit to involve our children with various activities, can help them understand and bring them more understanding of what some other children living in poverty go through in the world.
I have decided to bring out a few ideas for other parents, because I know children can help with poverty too! Use some of these ideas to get your child interested in helping others who are living in poverty. Each idea will need to be adjusted for age and your own child’s temperament.
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Donate unused clothes
Help your child pick out some of the clothes they don’t wear or are no longer using. Make sure the clothing is clean and wearable. Bring them with you when you make the donation. Don’t forget to pick out some of your clothing too so they see you are helping! -
Donate toys and books
ALL children love to play and read books. Just as you had your child pick out clothes, help your child pick out some of their toys, books, and games they no longer play with to donate. Make sure they are not broken and clean them before donating. -
Volunteer with your children
Take your children with you when you volunteer. Smaller children are harder to take volunteering, however there are many days where organizations have family volunteer days which will help get your child used to volunteering and the extra energy is welcomed. -
Donate to charity on their birthdays or holidays
On their birthday or special holidays, you can make a donation to a charity in your child’s name. You can either present your child with the certificate of the donation or make a special craft project out of it by making a card, placing the donation in it, than having your child help place the stamp on the envelope. -
Donate to food banks together
Get your children involved with donating food to the local food banks. Help them pick food in the pantry or at the grocery store. You can teach them what type of food is good to donate and deliver it together to the food bank. -
Talk to your children about poverty
This is a very simple thing we can all do to help our children. Help them recognize that there are still millions of people throughout the world, including in our own country that need our help. -
Volunteer and participate too
Every step always included you helping right along with your child. Make sure you show and tell your child all the steps you take to help with poverty.
Poverty is still an ongoing issue throughout the world. Our children will be fighting the battle when they grow up. Get them involved while they are young, so they not only are excited about helping others but will be excited about getting others to help too!
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Wow…I thought you had gone for good…great to see you back here posting 4 days off being a year since you last post! You starting this blog again? There’s no money in blogging about blogging and writing, although I sure did like you group writing project.
Cheers
Hey Sarah!
Wow! Good to see you back, hope you’ve been well. We missed you!
Hi Sarah,
Come back from the dead have we? I thought about you the other day actually, out of the blue and today I see this email notification. It made me come over to see what is going on and voila, you are posting again?
What’s been happening at your end? Why did you disappear all of a sudden? let us know please, some of the original reader crowd are still here as you well see.
All this fight poverty fad never mentions all the people working for Non profit groups getting rich thanks to good hearted people, they give $1 and only $0.20 will go in reality to the persorn in need.
A post after nearly a year. Good to see you back Sarah
Nice to see you writing again Sarah.
thanks for coming back
and i always donate the clothes to poor people and few funds when i have …
And u made me clear with few other options will try to work on it
Nice post and timely with the holidays around the corner. Even in tougher economic times it’s important to help when possible.
I am very glad to see you back. The post is good and the theme of the blog seems to be very encouraging.
This is a site here in South Africa that we support and it teaches the kids and parents how to grow their own food, pop in and have a look, we support them each month. http://www.ekukhanyeni.org/
Great ideas to share with parents! Another great way to get teens involved with charity is to have them start doing walk/runs/jogs to raise money for groups like Make A Wish or Susan G Koman Race For The Cure or with real hands on projects like Habitat For Humanity. Getting your older kids involved in activities where they can be actively involved and put some sweat into the charity not only can make them proud of themselves, help their self esteem and give them a real “feel” for helping, but it can also get them outdoors and active.
My husband and I are planning to invite homeless children on our son’s 1st birthday. The place is still undecided we just want to see those kids happy and ease their hungry even for just one day. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the post. As a parent it’s always great to see how others out there are contributing to help the less priviledge. Keep up the good posts.
Monica
We teach our kid about poverty, giving example or two where ever possible and appropriate. How to live economically. It usually works, kids won’t absorb a lot of stuff like this easy, from time to time she forgets, but it’s so great when we as parents are sometimes corrected by our kid, as per the same aspects. So the education works and nothing is wasted.
Usually only a strong organization can organize an long-lasting and effective poverty fighting. But it is always good to have it practice at home by doing the list of things listed up there.
I enjoy being a volunteer but unfortunately my place here has not much of voluntary organizations operating. Also the promotion is not enough to spread their words.
Sarah? Is that REALLY you? What have you been doing in the past year?! I hope all is well with your life!
Hey there – nice to see you’re back. What have you been up to ?
Donation is a very good thing. I uaually donate clothes and some money. As in india people are very needy they need food, shelter as well as funds. BUt it is not easy for one to donate all this at a same time. And cannot be donated on daily basis. Donaton can be done once in a while.
I donated some unused clothes this week in aid of child poverty in UK!
There is nothing more important than teaching our children to be grateful for what they have and the value of helping others less fortunate-wonderful family ideas to help fight poverty!
great article! got me thinking about what i don’t need – could benafit others…
A year is a very long time, in comparison to the separation of time between most internet updates. This is probably one of the first times I had noticed posts that were about a year apart on any site, and it sure can leave the readers looking for the site to continue. Coming back for the unifying day was a positive action.
Being aware of what brads are used form a young age can be benficial. It is never too early to know about fair trade.
Donate unused clothes …,
Hmm will do this !!
Good to see you posting again.
You bring up a lot of great ideas how to get kids involved. I think there is no better way to fight poverty than make sure the future generation knows how important it is.
I’m volunteering at a food pantry tomorrow to help them get ready for Thanksgiving. Great list. Hopefully this will spur some people on.
What a great way to get children in the spirit of giving!
I’ve done most of the points stated above when I was a child. This should be for everyone. Young and old.
This article was beneficial to me in many ways, I really appreciate your incites. Thank you. And keep up the great work!
Hi, you haven’t posted in quite a while now, what’s up on your side?
Great Article
Yes, the ideas are great, We all need to join hands to eliminate poverty. Specially Children can also contribute implementing the following ideas. So let’s join hands to work together, We’ll succeed if we unite.
In my place there are more children who live in poverty, fortunately the community here always help each other by sharing something that didn’t use anymore.
I am also looking forward to your next post, keep up the great work!
Great post! Appreciate your time & efforts in publicizing this initiative. Wishing you and all your readers a merry Christmas & New year
I donated
nice…
Thanx!
thank you
It is a very important to create awareness for this subject and to do the best on fighting child poverty.
thanks, very nice share
ha ha super share, I thank you bluejar
This is such an important subject and it is a great idea to start teaching children from a young age. They will grow up talking about it and therefore will become more aware of the subject. They are also more likely to talk to their children about it, so the cycle will continue.
Nice post worth the wait.
Great post! We need to see more people in the world give advise like this and actually go out and do the things on the list! Thanks again!
Awareness is the best way to raise money for this cause.
There’s no money in blogging about blogging and writing, although I sure did like you group writing project.
Cheers
A recent experience when I was locked outside in the cold for a couple hours just showed me a glimpse into some peoples everyday reality…show some compassion and heed this blog posts advice. Good read.
Thanks for the ideas on getting children involved in charitable giving; it is so important to teach our children to help others and to be grateful for all they have. Good points!
Thanks a lot for giving these opportunities. Hopefully it can save my everything.
Happy New Year!
Those are really great ideas and a great article. I wish that more blogs would do things like this, it would really be great for our communities. Right now our food banks are extremely low on food, so please give if you can. thanks.
Nice work Sarah on inspiring children.
Feel free to hold hands with poor children and people. They get moral support. They are not alone, we are with them, we will help them to succeed.
Let us make Poverty History.
Hi
Nice Post helping the people in need is the divine quality. As a social being and living in a society we have a primary responsibility of giving back what we take from it for our living. Apart from all the points what u had written I personal teach my son to thank god for being fortunate enough to help the children in poverty, and for give him a good life where in he can help other.
Stopping by to thank everyone for their great comments! I REALLY appreciate the generous comments that are posted to my blog regularly.
Thanks again and Happy New Year!
I am not familiar with the theme of blog but I can see 2 posts on main page and both of them are from different years. I like the post because it is not a usual post just like on other blogs but I am really shocked to see the frequency of your posts. You should increase your post count per year and should help spread the good words.
Completely agree. Awareness whould be step number 1
Great initiative. Please keep posting more news of this sort! This was a good learning experience
Cool, I really appreciate and extend my full support the movement your doing in your blog to stop poverty
Great idea! And nice post there.
iT’S ABOUT TIME WE READ ONE YOUR FABULOUS POSTS AGAIN. JUST DROPPING BY..
There’s nothing easier than going to the local goodwill and donating stuff you don’t wear or can’t use anymore. It’s a tax write-off and it really helps!
Handy tips . Its good to encourage children to be charitable helps them grow up more socially aware.
Great article and excellent idea for a website. Keep up the good work and continue with great stories
Wonderful list here to share; esp now as so many are struggling. It is impoartant to remember to give what we can to help others-you never know when you might need help!
looking back the the recent Red nose day, I strongly support charity work. Anyway that being said,Great post! We need to see more people in the world give advise like this and actually go out and do the things on the list! Thanks again!
If you can afford it take your children to a third world country, then they can truly understand what poverty is. Even our worst here isn’t as bad as say…. congo, peru maybe.
Thanks for the new post. Great idea on the charity front. Keep us posted.
Great post. I really enjoyed reading through your list of ideas to help get your child involved in helping people in poverty. Keep spreading the good word!
More exposure to this type of need on the planet is a must. Many thanks for this blog! These are appropriate days as it seems there are a lot more people becoming poorer, this will mean more children will be in need!
What a great post!
If we do just one good turn, every now and again, the world would be a better place.
We need to create more awareness through things like this. Cool ideas. Fantastic post – thank you.
I always donate all my used clothings that I dont use and still in good conditions. It’s a great post! I think more people should be aware about people living in poverty. All because we live in developed countries does not mean that we should forget about the people living in undeveloped nation living under a dollar a day.
nice post helping for all….
Great list.
Great advice, will there be a Blog Action Day 2009?
We sometimes donate to charity shops, but probably not as often as we should. It usually takes moving house to get us to go through things, but we do then donate things we no longer need. It’d be much better to do it frequently, as it’d clear some space if nothing else!
Thans for sharing
Really interesting. Thanks for your informative post!
Just wanted to let you know I just started talking about poverty with my 6 year old son! and it feels really good!
Awareness is the best way to raise money for this cause.
Cmon, Sarah, post some more, we love you
What a great way to get children involved!
Wow this is so great! I am so happy to see that some people still care!
Thanks very
One of the most easiest way of helping poor children is giving them used clothes and books. I think everyone can do this easily.
great good afford to help others people.congratulation.
Amazing. It is just a metter of time that there will be online campaigns where the main striking force will be children. Looking forward to it. Nice post.
Great work. Good for me to find this article. Thanks.
Why should kids give up their toys? There’s fully grown adults out there who’ve got attics FULL of old toys and games from their youth and they have far less need of them than the kids. Kids have barely been on the planet that long and we’re badgering them to give up the little they have.
I think adults should look in their cupboards and throw out some of their old stuff!
I really wish there was more charity work in this world.
nice ways and great post.
I believe in Mother Teresa’s words “if you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one”.
What a wonderful charity for children to support-thanks for all the information! I hope they are able to raise all the funds they need this year.
wow..
i think this is a nice article..
You bring up a lot of great ideas how to get kids involved. Thanks for all you good work. Keep on.
Interesting on how you can help with all the tips you mention above. Thanks.
Children definitely have a distorted view of poverty. Hopefully we can repair this oversight in the future.
Very Nice Tips And Thanks for Sharing the Info And It’s really very good way…
Keep It Up
Great work, Sarah, keep it up
Every Christmas, we go to orphanage and visit the children there and donate stuffs such as clothes, etc. I see that you are not that active anymore on posting, please do
That’s a very thoughtful article! You have written an article about a very noble cause and made people aware about it. We often get so involved in our own life that we become insensitive to what’s going around us. These tips you have mentioned here are very useful and help the children grow up more grounded and down to earth and more aware towards the cause to mankind!
Is this site still alive? lol
Thanks… Happy New Year!
That is a good post! I was actually googling “how to help fight poverty” and found you somewhere there, great blog and thanks for the advices I will do my best!
This idea is good! Teaching children at their young age is very important most especially in poverty matters. nice post!
thanks for this good posting..as a parent we need to teach our children about this and give a contribution to the society..
A truly important topic to teach or kids. Thank you!
This article is really nice! Children should be aware about this. The early they know is the better.
Thanks for this idea! I will start teaching my little brother about poverty.
nice to see you back and that is gr8 initiative you start helping poor children.
Hi,
its nice to read a useful article for beginner like me.
Some of points from this article are very helpful for me as I haven’t
considered them yet.
I would like to say thank you for sharing this cool article.
Bookmarked and sharing for friends.
- Suresh
I will always donate the clothes. But teaching children to do this is a nice idea. This will make them to grow with humanity and blossom as a good humane human being.
Great lessons to get kids aware that it’s not always about themselves. Thanks.
Nice to see you writing again Sarah.
There are always people worse off than ourselves. … But with so many good causes its impossible to give to every charity.
I know there are ways we common people can help with differents programs or sending money etc but I would like to follow this path as a way of life or profession
Great article and some good tips I could use to help me write new blog posts.
The Internet has changed our lives and the idea of using the web to help promote charitable purposes is a great one!
This is such a nice idea! I think you have to be involved with the child while learning them about poverty.
I’m form Africa and the poverty rate here are sickening. It feels like its just getting worse every month.
Hi Sarah
We are eagerly awaiting your next post
Katie
ı REALLY appreciate the generous comments
I REALLY appreciate the generous comments
These are great ways on how to teach children fight or help alleviate poverty. Thank you for these tips.
hehe, thank you! =))
this is very nice post..thanks for giving us some good idea to teach our children about poverty and social wook..its very nice!!
Children really do grasp the ‘giving’ spirit and understand what it means! Interesting that many adults have managed to put this spirit out of mind.
Thanks for the post!
i always donate food packets to poor ones once in a week, its really sweet to see happiness in their face when they receive from us.
There are some really good suggestions here. I think it’s important for children to know the real value of things and how fortunate they are compared to many others. Donating their unwanted toys etc. is a good start and volunteering their time is a great way for them to contribute too.
Fighting poverty always struck me as a ’street-level’ issue. If you can get people to see for themselves the ones who are unemployed and struggling, there is a definite ‘call to action’ that takes place.
Best of luck and thanks for this post!
Poverty had been a problem to our society, but how we could prevent poverty? No offense but to fight poverty they must also help themselves not only waiting for someone to donate food and clothing for them. They must also earn to fight poverty.
“Volunteer and participate” useful and funny
Poverty is an ongoing issue throughout the world. We must involve our children in the poverty battle. By using some tips we can eradicate poverty like some are here: Donate unused clothes, Donate to food banks together, Donate toys and books, Volunteer with your children etc.
Bloggers around the world should put the blogosphere to good use for humanitarian outcomes such as this. It’s vital that the web is used as a force for good and for social equality for all. Good to see you back!
thanks, very nice share
I really liked this blog, it is a shame that she hasn’t written anything for over a year! Please start writing again Sarah!
It is really nice to inculcate in our children the quality of generosity towards the unfortunate. They will grow to be better humans and will in turn make you proud by the small little things they’ll do in the future.
Every time we talk about the children welfare my heart is always with them. The points you are suggesting are very good just imagine what if all of us internet users find a little time to invest on this little children would that be very pleasant for them.
It usually works, kids won’t absorb a lot of stuff like this easy, from time to time she forgets, but it’s so great when we as parents are sometimes corrected by our kid, as per the same aspects.thanks..
I also used to donate such a clothes, foods, and other items on festivals, on my birthday..
We really help to childrens and old people who really needs..
I thought about you the other day actually, out of the blue and today I see this email notification. It made me come over to see what is going on and voila, you are posting again?
I have no such special words to appreciate about your post, This post show that you have love of humanity in your heart , your this post insist me to read other posts.
Nice Idea bro
Well, I guess you can ignore my last post asking if this is an annual event. I guess you’ve just been too busy to post. Perhaps we’ll hear from you again soon given that it’s time for blog action day again!
Hehe as you say only the truth …
It is a very important to create awareness for this subject and to do the best on fighting child poverty.
This is an excellent idea.
I am from London and will be taking action for sure.
In fact if anyone wants to get involved in the London group please contact us at oxfam.org/london
thanks for the article ..it gives good knowledge
thanks
interesting connection! blogging to service work!
It seems consistent though.. blogs are a manner or building and maintaining relationships – just like acts of service!
Thanks!
MAS
I always donate spare money, but you’re right, there are many other ways to benefit charities that are overlooked. And some don’t cost anything!
Great ideas. I always help out my local charity. I sometimes like to help out in my local homeless shelter on weekends.
Donating used clothes is one of the best things you can do, and one of the easiest. Sometimes, it doesn’t require a trip either. One organization around my way will come by and actually pick up the clothes right from my doorstep.
Nice Idea bro
Words of wisdom, great insight and absolutely true.
This article is awesome one of the best articles I have read but interesting I wonder what happened why no one has updated this blog for over a year.
Awesome article, thank you for shareing.
Thanks, i wonder if this still goes on. seem i’m a bit late to the discussion.
Nice post. Thanks for the post.