As I was driving east along Lakeshore Blvd. in Toronto, I was overcome with a powerful recollection.
I was stopped at a traffic light, when a panhandler approached my car. I rolled down my window, and offered a loonie.
This scene plays out every day in big cities around the globe. And I remembered the hungry families and orphaned children who would come to stopped cars asking for handouts on the streets of Johannesburg and Durban in South Africa.
An especially heartbreaking sight when the children are as young as three. Or if it's a mother with a babe in a sling.
Poverty is an issue that isn't going away quickly, so what can I do as a parent when my kid asks why this happens in the world? What do I say when he asks how he can help?
There are no easy answers. It's complicated, yes.
But talking about it helps, and besides I think it's healthy for kids to see their parents grapple with issues. It makes parents human in their kids' eyes.
As War Child Canada's Dr. Samantha Nutt, a mother of a two and a half year old boy, says, "We do our children a gross disservice when we protect them from the realities of the world. If we’re not teaching children critical and ethical thinking, we’re not equipping them with the resources they’ll need. It would be overwhelming for a child who didn’t prepare or talk about the world’s problems on a constructive level.”
Check out TVOParents.com for an article on how to start building global awareness in your kids.
