The Most Common Problem in Lithuania
VILNIUS - According to the World Bank there has been marked progress on reducing poverty over the past decades.
There were 650 thousand people in Lithuania who earned less than minimum wage in 2017. That‘s almost 23 percent of all citizens of Lithuania. This number is one percent higher than in 2016, according to the Lithuanian Department of Statistics.
Most often, the poorest groups of people are those living in the countryside, large families and pensioners. According to ebook “Poverty in Lithuania. What do we need to do?“ one out of three elders, villagers or families don’t get enough money to live through the day. Pensioners were paid more in the past few years, but the cost of goods that are the most common in their shopping bags rise faster than pensions. Pensioner Snaiguole says, “It’s hard to survive. My youngest daughter is forty, she does not have her own family and started studying in a university recently. Fortunately, I have three sons and they support me and her as much as they can.”
But this problem is frequent with young and big families. If we put all the kids of Lithuania into one room, one fifth of them would be poor. Jolanta - mother of two kids, one of them five and the other is three years old - is expecting a third baby in February. “I try every possible job that I can. I tried making handmade bags. Right now I started to make cakes for my friends and family. I am happy, because a bakery was my dream since childhood and I am feeling that I am coming this way,“ Jolanta says. Her husband works as a local driver in Lithuania, so he doesn’t earn a very huge salary. Jolanta says, “Sometimes it’s very difficult to get through the month. The hardest part is right now. I can’t get a full-time job, because I am pregnant, and when I was not, I had to take care of the kids when they got sick every single time. I hope that as they get older, their immune systems will get stronger. Then we can finally make our life easier.“ When asked about migration to a different country, Jolanta agreed that their family had that idea. But they decided that raising kids in Lithuania is the most important thing right now.
All people have their own story, and try to do their best. Unfortunately, luck isn’t coming their way yet. But they do not give up. Sometimes they ask for help from their family and sometimes they search for job opportunities. These are only two examples, but why don’t we aggressively speak out about the other ones?
There were 650 thousand people in Lithuania who earned less than minimum wage in 2017. That‘s almost 23 percent of all citizens of Lithuania. This number is one percent higher than in 2016, according to the Lithuanian Department of Statistics.
Most often, the poorest groups of people are those living in the countryside, large families and pensioners. According to ebook “Poverty in Lithuania. What do we need to do?“ one out of three elders, villagers or families don’t get enough money to live through the day. Pensioners were paid more in the past few years, but the cost of goods that are the most common in their shopping bags rise faster than pensions. Pensioner Snaiguole says, “It’s hard to survive. My youngest daughter is forty, she does not have her own family and started studying in a university recently. Fortunately, I have three sons and they support me and her as much as they can.”
But this problem is frequent with young and big families. If we put all the kids of Lithuania into one room, one fifth of them would be poor. Jolanta - mother of two kids, one of them five and the other is three years old - is expecting a third baby in February. “I try every possible job that I can. I tried making handmade bags. Right now I started to make cakes for my friends and family. I am happy, because a bakery was my dream since childhood and I am feeling that I am coming this way,“ Jolanta says. Her husband works as a local driver in Lithuania, so he doesn’t earn a very huge salary. Jolanta says, “Sometimes it’s very difficult to get through the month. The hardest part is right now. I can’t get a full-time job, because I am pregnant, and when I was not, I had to take care of the kids when they got sick every single time. I hope that as they get older, their immune systems will get stronger. Then we can finally make our life easier.“ When asked about migration to a different country, Jolanta agreed that their family had that idea. But they decided that raising kids in Lithuania is the most important thing right now.
All people have their own story, and try to do their best. Unfortunately, luck isn’t coming their way yet. But they do not give up. Sometimes they ask for help from their family and sometimes they search for job opportunities. These are only two examples, but why don’t we aggressively speak out about the other ones?