Poverty and Education

How Can I Help Break the Effects of Poverty on Education?

At GFA World, we understand the effects of poverty on education, and we are working hard to help individual families. The connection between poverty and education is a vicious cycle and it takes a concerted effort to break that cycle. When people are poor, they often can’t afford education, and without education, they can’t get a better job. It often takes an outside person or organization to break into that cycle.

GFA’s child sponsorship program relieves the financial burden on struggling families in parts of Asia and Africa through community-wide solutions against poverty.

Vijul’s family is a great example of how this program has helped hundreds of communities.


Meet Vijul, a boy in South Asia. When his dad got sick with a kidney condition and couldn’t work anymore, Vijul dropped out of school because his mother couldn’t pay for the school fees. Vijul wanted to learn but knew it would be hard for his parents to pay for the necessary expenses.

One day, GFA workers heard about Vijul and his family. He was enrolled into GFA’s child sponsorship program, where he, and other children from the village like him, and had the opportunity to receive a quality education. Each day, Vijul receiveed a nutritious meal, and that took the burden off his mom to provide food for him. Through the program, he learned so much!

“Now my son [got] school materials like a school bag, books, free education, and healthy food [through the sponsorship program],” Vijul’s mom says. “We are poor; I’m unable to fulfill my sons’ basic needs. But the [sponsorship program] is a great help and blessing for my family.”

Since GFA has started helping lift the family’s financial burden, Vijul’s younger brother has also started in school. Their mother has the joy of knowing her sons are learning and growing. Without GFA’s intervention into this cycle, there would be little hope. Vijul’s family is so thankful the poverty cycle is being broken.