Of course, the suggested responses will deal with symptons, but not change
the basic system which causes the problem.
Miriam
Truthdig
How Can America's Wealthy Sleep at Night When Some Teens Must Sell Sex or
Drugs in Order to Eat?
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/how_can_wealthy_elites_sleep_at_
night_american_teens_selling_sex_20160912/
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Posted on Sep 12, 2016
Youssef Hanna(https://www.flickr.com/photos/yhanna/) / CC BY-ND
2.0(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/)
A harrowing new study sheds light on the extreme measures some U.S. children
between the ages of 13 and 18 are taking in order to feed themselves and
calls Bill Clinton's welfare
policies(http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060829_robert_scheer_clinton_
welfare) into question.
Detailing responses from teens across the country, research by the
Washington-based Urban Institute reveals that 20 years after the two-term
Democratic president supposedly reformed welfare, youths in some
food-insecure households have to sell drugs, join gangs or engage in sex
with older men in order not to starve.
From The
Guardian(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/12/teens-america-hunge
r-food-poverty?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other) :
The qualitative study, carried out in partnership with the food banks
network Feeding America, created two focus groups - one male, one female -
in each of 10 poor communities across the US. The locations included big
cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington and rural North Carolina
and eastern Oregon. A total of 193 participants aged 13 to 18 took part and
were allowed to remain anonymous.
Their testimony paints a picture of teenagers - often overlooked by
policymakers focused on children aged zero to five - missing meals, making
sacrifices and going hungry, with worrying long-term consequences. ... In
every community, and in 13 of the 20 focus groups, there were accounts of
sexual exploitation, often related with distaste. A girl in Portland, Oregon
told researchers: "It's really like selling yourself. Like you'll do
whatever you need to do to get money or eat."
The findings raise questions over the legacy of Bill Clinton's landmark
welfare-reform legislation 20 years ago as well as the spending priorities
of Congress and the impact of slow wage growth. Evidence of teenage girls
turning to "transactional dating" with older men is likely to cause
particular alarm. ... The report is not an attempt to provide national
statistics but does cite research that estimates 6.8 million individuals
aged 10 to 17 are in food-insecure households, including 2.9 million with
very low food security.
The Urban Institute's recommendations include improving the federal
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; expanding access to school-based
meals for teens in summer months and after classes; creating more and better
youth job opportunities; establishing community projects, such as one that
has proved successful in Portland; and helping rather than punishing girls
who are sexually exploited. ... "One of the policy changes we advocate for
in the report is a real shift in the perspective and getting kids help and
support instead of a criminal record[," said Susan Popkin, a senior fellow
at the Urban Institute and lead author of the report, Impossible Choices.]
One has to wonder what this country stands for when we can't even protect
our children from having to turn to vice in order to eat.
- Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata(http://www.truthdig.com/natasha_hakimi)
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