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The struggle for food, water, and shelter are problems commonly associated with the poor. Not as widely addressed is the violence that surrounds poor communities. Corrupt law enforcement, rape, and slavery (to name a few), separate families, destroys homes, ruins lives, and imprisons the poor in their current situations.
How do we see poverty? Most people envision global poverty as dirty shacks, hungry children, a lack of schools, and rampant disease. But as Gary A. Haugen, founder and president of International Justice Mission, explains there is another phenomenon hidden beneath the surface. Rather than catastrophic forms of violence in civil war, unrest, or even genocide, insidious forms of violence in everyday life make the poor even more vulnerable.
For billions around the world, poverty translates not only into a struggle for food, shelter, health, and education. No, poverty exposes them to a vast spectrum of human rights abuses on a daily basis. Safety and freedom from fear do not exist for those living in underdeveloped areas. Ill-equipped judicial systems, under-trained and corrupt law enforcement agencies, and despotic housing complexes are just a few of the challenges the impoverished face.