East Worthing and Shoreham Labour Party

Action on Poverty

For the last 6 months, I’ve been involved in a number of events focused around ‘Poverty in Worthing’ - highlighting problems of poverty in Worthing, and more widely, nationally and internationally.

On the 29 January, I attended the Worthing Churches Homelessness event at St Peter’s Church Shoreham, where concerned members of the local community met to discuss the problems of homelessness, and ways we could all help. I spoke briefly about the problems of young runaways, as this is an issue I am particularly alarmed about. Young people who make the decision to runaway are often in terrible circumstances, and need great help and support in their situation.

Then, on the 1st of February, I attended a Poverty meeting at Worthing Tabernacle Hall, along with others such as the Mayor of Worthing, Dr Heather Mercer, and Peter Bottomley MP. I was grateful to be invited by Wayne Green, who I know does much work in the area on this subject. A video was played featuring clips of interviews with the public, in which they answered the question ‘who is to blame for poverty’. Some of the answers were slightly worrying, and only demonstrated how issues concerning poverty need to be more widely promoted in the public eye - to avoid such misconceptions.

Much was said about debt, and how this so often forcing people into poverty, and then losing their homes. A representative from the CAB (Citizens Advisory Bureau) explained how the organisation is here to help, along with someone from the Worthing Churches Homelessness Project, which obviously does excellent work in the area. It was a humbling experience to hear from two people who had experienced being homeless in Worthing, and reminded the audience of the personal stories behind every statistic. I spoke briefly about Child Poverty, and how there is still so much work to do to eradicate one of the great social ills of our society. Child Poverty is not something I am willing to tolerate in our developed society, and I think it has to be a main priority for any government, and all politicians, of all parties.

At the meeting, I met some boys from St Andrew’s School in Worthing, and was delighted that the school subsequently invited me to address them in a school assembly, which I did in April.

Between the meeting and the school visit, I was fortunate enough to India for a 12 day visit. This was primarily a visit to see my many family members out there (my Grandmother is from Calcutta, and my mother spent lots of her childhood there), but the visit opened my eyes again to the enormous poverty which I remembered from my previous visits.

Like many of us, I read reports about the ‘millions’ of impoverished citizens in India, but somehow the enormous numbers in the statistics blunts the impact on me. Instead it is personal experiences there which shook me most. Something I found particularly distressing was in Delhi when a young girl, basically the same age as me, was coming up to tourists asking us to buy postcards she was selling. She was obviously desperate for help, and it really affected me. I was so upset about this incident I made a trip back the next day to try and see this girl again, but she wasn’t there. I never found out her name, or what she did, yet she really emotionally affected me. I feel incredibly guilty living in this developed country, with free education, healthcare, a stable home and life opportunities; I definitely have a ‘guilty conscience’.

I am rightly proud of the absolutely fantastic record his Labour Government has on International Development, and we are leading the world on taking action on global poverty. But, like so many issues, we can always, as an international community, do more. I do believe we have the global capacity to solve these problems.

So when I went to St Andrew’s to address the whole school assembly and Dr Heather Mercer, who was also present, I spoke about my visit to India, how it will soon be up to our generation to tackle these huge global issues, and how we need to start now. I was involved in a small ‘Q&A’ session with members of the school council, along with 3 other panel members. Here I got to learn more about my generation’s views on poverty, and some of them had excellent ideas about how to try and tackle it. The main problem seemed to be the ‘visibility issue’, and how many people are unaware of poverty within their own local communities. It was good to know that the boys were obviously concerned about the issue, and were prepared to undertake initiatives to try and help. It only with this kind of attitude that we can come together to solve this problem.

All of these events were illuminating and very rewarding. I hope to do more work around the issue of Poverty, in East Worthing & Shoreham and internationally, in the coming months, as this is an issue we cannot afford to ignore.