MEMORANDUM

To: Mapleton School District

From: Maria Quezada
Date: 6 October 2015
Subject: A proposal to create awareness in Colorado about child poverty
Purpose
The purpose of this memorandum is to create awareness of child poverty in third world
countries. I propose that we reach out to those children in need and improve the child poverty
situation throughout the world. Not the city. Not the state. Not even just the country, but the
whole world. It may seem like an unattainable goal, but it is a most necessary action. We cant
simply sit in the comfort of our homes pretending like theres not a care in the world, while we
completely ignore the problem.

Problem
Child poverty is everywhere. You dont have to try very hard to find someone living in poverty.
Its a world-wide problem that affects people of all ages. However, we should focus more on the
children because they are the future of this world and hold great potential to change it. They are
also the most vulnerable. Most have to rely on their parents and can not help themselves for their
own survival. Children should not have to suffer the consequences of their elders mistakes. For
example, if the economy is very bad in their country they will most likely end up suffering some
degree of poverty. It is not their fault that their government does not yet fully know how to run a
good, healthy, and stable economy. I say this because a bad economy is the leading cause of child
poverty in developing countries (Shields).
There are also other causes such as war, conflict, and harmful ecosystems, but the
outcome is still the same (Humanium). Children sometimes do not have access to a clean and
adequate water source. Even when they do have a water source, they sometimes have to travel
vast distances just to get to it. Lack of water is not the only struggle they go through however.
They also have to endure through lack of food, shelter, education, and medical attention
(Sherwood). These are not the conditions in which a child should have to grow up in.

Solution

The end goal of this is to raise awareness about child poverty and to inform people on what they
can do to improve the situation and do their share to diminish child poverty. We can do our share
by presenting all of these statistics to the student body. We can inform them on the horrors and
struggles that innocent children have to go through and what they can do to help the less
fortunate. This can be done by creating a video campaign to show at every Mapleton Public
school during an assembly where not only the video is presented, but also all the other
information that the people need to hear. To reach even more people, we can post the video on
social media for the whole world to see. Another idea would be passing out flyers throughout
every school in Mapleton. The flyers will contain a lot of the same basic information as the video
but it will be presented in a different form. This is a good idea because we want it to be almost
impossible for people to ignore the problem. If all goes according to plan, then hopefully child
poverty will start to decrease. Although it would be especially effective if we took this campaign
on a bigger scale.

Conclusion
To conclude this memorandum, it must first be acknowledged that most people think that this is
not their problem and that its not their fault. This way of thinking is probably accurate but
helping these people is the right thing to do. As we would not like to live in such poverty, we
cannot deny these children of their basic necessities and possible opportunities so we must do
our share to help them. It is our responsibility as good and ethical human beings to help the less
fortunate.

Works Cited
Humanium. "Children in the World." Humanium Together for Childrens Rights. N.p., n.d. Web.
14 Sept. 2015.
Sherwood, Harriet. "Child Poverty up in More than Half of Developed World since 2008." The
Guardian. Theguardian, 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2015.
Shields, Maureen. "News." Report Finds 400 Million Children Living in Extreme Poverty. N.p.,

10 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Sept. 2015.