Description:This photograph shows me on my Caribbean holiday cruise. I got dressed in an evening gown and meet the Captain of the ship. Afterwards I went to sit down for a meal in a five star restaurant and the food was wonderful. I had a lovely time on my Caribbean cruise.
I did a lot of research for my project and visit the Central Library Archives and saw pictures of plantations in the West Indies and journal entries on purchase cost of slaves, which really upset me. I also went to the Back to Backs on Hurst Street and saw how families lived in hardship especially not being able to afford medical care.
Through my internet research into the poverty problem in Africa and the Caribbean I have seen that many people are affected by lack of medical care, water shortage and no electricity. I have become more aware of a lot of things that are going on all over the world regarding climate change, diseases developed due to unclean water, shortage of safe drinking water and cheap child labour. I am glad that the UK Government Department for International Development is doing so much in reducing world poverty.
I have seen Fair Trade products in my local Sainsbury supermarket in Castle Vale. They carry Fair Trade products like biscuits, tea, sugar, banana and coffee from Kenya. I support Fair Trade and buy their products weekly. It gives me peace of mind knowing the long term good that it is doing to help the farmers in Kenya. I found out that the United Nations World Food Programme has started a new round of food distributions for Chadian refugees in Cameroon. They deliver food by planes, trucks and animals such as camels, elephants and mules to help people in hard to reach places. The WFP uses anything and stops at nothing to deliver food to the hungry.
My church is called the Birmingham Christian Centre and it also supports numerous missionaries to Africa, Uganda, India and Tibet to name a few. Volunteers, nurses, teachers and other helpers go over to help to educate and offer medical aid for the needy people in these countries.
Photograph courtesy of Inez Scarlett