The Solution: Working Together

By Donia Arfaoui
Category: 18 to 24 years old

(Translated from French text)

Our country bases its hopes on youth, but that doesn’t mean it leaves out older people. In fact, the opposite is true, because they are the ones who have experience and can train us youth to continue what they started, because they also continued what their predecessors started. By working together, we can develop a solution to reduce poverty in Canada. Young and old people alike must work together to address this scourge. That is why the plan I am proposing to reduce poverty in Canada calls for people of all generations to participate and is made up of three components. First, we must raise awareness among youth. To do this, I suggest holding interactive conferences and awareness workshops in schools across Canada to empower youth. Youth have to understand that the passion and motivation to get out of poverty have to come from themselves. Most of all, youth have to realize their full potential, because when they believe in themselves, they are willing and able to get out of poverty. Second, we need to provide youth with training and work experience. Youth should be offered paid internships regardless of their past or present so they can have a better future. Many youth are afraid to look for a job because of events in their personal life that deeply affected them either physically or psychologically. So they fear that these events or their lasting effects will jeopardize their work. If we give youth more opportunity to learn and gain experience in the workplace, poverty will decline because youth are the future of our country. Third, we must recognize immigrants’ diplomas. When they arrive in Canada, many immigrants are unable to work in the same field they did at home because their diplomas are not recognized. They have to spend a long time doing training or completely redo their education, but without the time or money to do this, they work low-paying jobs and live in poor neighbourhoods. To fix this, we should recognize their diplomas or equivalencies to reduce the time and cost of their training, which would allow them to earn higher salaries and reduce poverty in Canada. In closing, to reduce poverty in Canada, we must all work together and believe in the potential of every one of us.