Overcoming Poverty Amongst Hundreds of Millions

            More families than we know suffer from poverty. With this, mothers encourage their children to be the best that they can be in order to help the family overcome their struggles. As many of us know, there are several heart-touching stories that inspire us to do better on our day to day activities. Although we feel that there is not much we can do to get out of the lower class or working class, there are many chances out there, waiting for us to take them. With hundreds of millions of people growing around us, it may seem almost impossible to defeat the poverty, but there are plenty of very influential people who have made it by staying determined.

            Julián Slim Haddad was sent to South America at the age of only 14, while attempting to escape from the yoke of the Ottoman Empire. He did not know any Spanish but was very enthusiastic and energetic. Soon, he moved to Tampico, Tamaulipas where three of his other brothers had already settled. Here, the brothers had hope that they would succeed together, and that the country had received them. Sure enough, by 1911, the Slim brothers opened up their own shop, called La Estrella de Oriente.

In just a short period of time, the Slim brothers’ shop had become very successful, being worth over $100,000 US dollars in 1921. Of course, from here the company took off, and was worth a lot more later on. Don Julián then met Linda Helú in 1926, and ended up six children. Of course, among these children was Carlos Slim Helú. As most of us probably know, Mr. Helú was once the richest man in the world, being born in Mexico.

            With the rise of populations in Latin America during Revolutionary times, it was very tough for families to be well-know, or even become somewhat wealthy. Around these times, it was especially tough for women to begin making some type of currency. Well for Carolina Maria de Jesus, she overcame this struggle after a lot of hard work and inspiration. Carolina had built herself a shack out of lumber and other material. She managed to live her life normally, making it seem as if she was in the same status as her neighbors. Carolina had only a second grade level education, thus, being able to only read and write. With this, she began writing about her life, day to day with all of her struggles. Eventually, a reported saw her work, published it, and become a well-known writer in Brazil.

            This is a huge problem that we see in Latin America today. It is very tough for families to even survive sometimes, because of how bad poverty is. Personally, I’ve been through poverty and it really was not a good time. Often, we suffered from starvation, having to boil water because we did not have enough warm water to shower, and even having to live in someone else’s house because we really just could not afford our own house. Thankfully, my mother soon got a job and helped my brother and I get out of that other house. Luckily, all along we kept up with our education, making good grades, then being able to make it to college.

http://www.carlosslim.com/biografia_ing.html

http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/10/worlds-richest-people-slim-gates-buffett-billionaires-2010_land.html

Born in Blood and Fire by John Charles Chasteen