What does poverty look like?

It's easy to assume that the dirty, disheveled man standing on the side of the road holding a sign reading, "Homeless, Please Help!" is poor. It's equally easy to assume that the well-groomed young man striding down the sidewalk in the spotless business suit, is successful and financially stable. But truthfully, we could be wrong on both counts. The man professing to be homeless could be a scammer, who actually makes thousands of dollars a year from handouts. The young man who appears to be a professional businessman could be pounding the pavement looking for work, having just spent his last dollar on a cup of coffee. Which begs the question, "What does poverty look like?" 

The faces of poverty are many and as varied as faces can be and it is impossible to identify how much anyone has in their wallet or bank account from the way they look, or dress, or behave. Some have spent their lives struggling to keep their heads above water, while others have only recently found themselves drowning in the quicksand of poverty due to an extended illness, injury, or job loss. But despite their differences, they have several things in common - fear, desperation, and enormous stress.

Have you ever been unable to pay your rent or mortgage? Have you ever had to worry about how you'd get enough money to feed your family their next meal? No? Then you are very, very lucky, because studies show that 4 out of 5 Americans have faced joblessness and poverty at some point during their lifetime. So if not you, then the majority of your neighbors and friends have fallen on hard times at least once in their lives. With those hard times inevitably come the fear, desperation, and the stress. If you've experienced it you know, first hand, how debilitating it can be.

Just try to imagine - You've been fired from your job due to an accident. Though you're recovering slowly, you're still not strong enough to look for another job, and now you have no health insurance, so you can't afford to get your medication or any follow up care for your injury. Your cupboards are bare and your bank account is overdrawn. What do you do? Where do you turn?

Every day we see patients, our friends and neighbors, who are in this untenable predicament - folks with serious health problems and medical conditions, but no insurance and few resources - folks who have nowhere else to turn for help. Thankfully we can offer them a good portion of the help they need - quality primary healthcare, health education, and prescription medications to treat their illness or injury and get them back on the road to recovery, along with referral to community organizations which may be able to help them out in other ways.

If you've never experienced the fear, desperation, and stress of being poor, then be thankful that your wallet has always been full, and show that gratitude by making a donation to help others who have not been as lucky as you. If you have fallen on hard times, but recovered, then make that donation to honor the ones who helped you when you were down and out.

Thanks to the generosity of the individuals, businesses, and organizations which invest in the Free Clinic of Franklin County, we are able to lift those who are struggling out of the poverty mire and ease some of their fear and stress. Thanks to you, our donors, we strive, daily, to give our patients health and hope.