The key to finding work is learning whatever skills are needed in the society you were born into. In other words getting a good education. If you are lucky you may have a family that will help, and support you. For the poor this is unlikely to be the case.
What is your educational background?
I made it through high school, grades 10-12, secondary school in other countries, I am sorry to say without much interest in classes. I did go to college, at night when I starting working at a bank, and also earned a technical degree, Certified Auditor.
I never enjoyed school. I have always loved learning about the world, but not the class room environment.
Two articles in the Christian Science Monitor are about people, and organizations, trying to bring education to the poor.
1) “People Making A Differences” by Amy Barcken
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0706/p07s01-lign.html
Miragoane, Haiti – Garry Delice searches out promising students in Haiti’s high schools as part of a program that provides tuition, housing, and expenses for exceptional pupils
Delice is on a treasure hunt, driving to Haiti’s remotest corners in search of brilliant young minds. He is national director of a scholarship program designed to help some of the country’s smartest and most impoverished students join the less than 1 percent of Haitians who have earned a college diploma.
The Haitian Education and Leadership Program (HELP) covers tuition, housing, and living expenses for exceptional students in pursuit of that degree. To find these kids, every spring HELP delegates distribute application forms at more than 100 schools across Haiti.
Delice himself attended a public high school in the southern Haitian town of Jacmel, where he lived in a classic gingerbread-style house with his mother, grandfather, and younger sister. His grandfather supported the family selling coffee and cotton to exporters. His mother found occasional work as a tailor.
“My mother always said that she would have had a better life if she had been able to complete her education,” Delice says. Neither his father, a bus driver in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, nor his mother made it past elementary school. “She always pushed me to read good books, and she was severe in monitoring my performance in school,” he says.
2) “African academy empowers youths” by Matthew Clark
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0710/p10s01-woaf.html
Kagadi, Uganda – Drumbeats pulse through the soft afternoon breeze. Teenage girls sing in unison, ululate, then sing again, cheering on their fellow student-athletes as they play long games of volleyball and netball. Baboons pluck at people’s pant cuffs before scampering off to the next bit of mischief.
It’s a field day here at the campus of the Uganda Rural Development and Training Programme (URDT), where girls learn how to take hold of their own future, teach their parents key skills, and make “Yes, We Can” more than just a campaign slogan in a faraway land.
These girls might not know it, but their small school is being watched as a potential model for transforming poor, war-torn African nations.
With a median age of 15, Uganda has the world’s youngest population, according to a 2008 World Bank report. It also has the highest youth (ages 15 to 24) unemployment rate: 83 percent. It’s common to find 20-somethings with law and business degrees stocking supermarket shelves. To break the cycle of poverty and war in places like Uganda, some development specialists now say that people don’t need fancy degrees; they need to gain practical skills to create their own income – in the countryside – so they won’t flood urban slums or join militias. The answer, they say, also lies in helping people learn how to maximize the assets they already have, and in changing the culture from “hands-out” to “can-do.”
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July 13, 2009 at 7:45 am
Indian Lake Papa
As you know Ed mama and I have spent the past two winters helping the homeless in Florida find employment. Some of the problems we ran into were lack of education, lack of desire by some to work, and a lack of opportunity – jobs were scarce. However, one area that needs workers in Florida is nursing home care. Many homes will even work with employees to get their certification. We are corresponding with one young lady who is in that process and is now trying to find an apartment and trying to get custody of her children again.
July 13, 2009 at 6:27 pm
edfromct
Some kind of professional certification goes a long way to finding a decent job.
When a friend of mine was layed-off the State help pay for his Medical Claims Form Specialist certification, and he now works for the Veterans Administration Hospital.
I hope the young women will gets back on her feet, and can make a home for her children.
July 13, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Indian Lake Papa
I forgot my educational background – Kindergarten was tough! I had no pre-school but survived anyways. I finally got a B.S. degree w/major in psych an social science. Then got 25 graduate hours in social work at Michigan State.
July 13, 2009 at 6:34 pm
edfromct
Kindergarten was a few years ago for the both of us. All I can remember was naps and getting a glass of milk and Graham Crackers. I think there may have been some finger painting. I have always been very good at making a mess.
Go Spartans!
July 14, 2009 at 5:47 am
lovewillbringustogether
as far as i know i never attended kiindergarten (or the UK ‘equivalent’ which i don’t believe there was one in the 60’s?)
i started my education at the age of 3 and one half though, courtesy of my ‘older’ friend Susie (always have liked older women)
who i’d follow to primary school and wait for outside class until home time. One day the teacher invited me in and i stayed for a year or so until my family moved house and i had to wait for a few months before i was ‘old enough’ to go to a normal ‘first’ year of schooling, despite having had one already 
That and my parent’s encouragement to read while at home from an early age (2-3) i think was responsible for me doing better than average at school.
Having an Aunt who was a primary teacher who would take me on nature and culture trips to various places of interest around my home was a definite ‘boost’ i’m sure.
Accordingly, i found school fairly ‘easy’, passed High school with marks high enough to get my first choice at Uni and chose a B.Sc in Chemistry.
Finding that first year was basically the same as last year high School i became bored and paid more attention to the social life than my studies.
Then i got a good secure well-paying job in the government and joined the workforce.
<B
July 14, 2009 at 10:15 pm
edfromct
I am very envious of the encouraging learning environment you grew up in.
Schools can only go so far in educating children, a supportive home environment can make the process either much easier, or much harder.
While you were on the outside wanting to get in, I was on the inside wishing I could get out.
I also got good grades, with out much effort. I could always pass test, even if I almost never did my homework. This drove some of my teachers crazy. It also left me with very poor study habits.
You got bored going over the same high school material in your first year in college. I got bored with it the first time around.
While government jobs are secure, at least they use to be, some don’t think consider them as actually being part of the “work” force.
There is a lot of competition to get into the better colleges here, again there use to be, so I must have been great to have your chose of which school to go to.
July 18, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Rain
This is a big issue in South Africa. The poverty. I work for a private university and interview students daily. The problem is almost none of them can afford tertiary education. In the future I would like to start a non-profit organization to sponsor students who are deserving, but the other problem is that the quality of primary and secondary school education is of such a poor standard in the public schools that many students, even with financial assistance, would not be able to pass at university level. So obviously the answer lies with quality education from primary school level on.
July 19, 2009 at 3:37 pm
edfromct
I think we can gauge how “civilized” a country is by looking at how it treats it’s poor. The resources it commits to reducing poverty.
America is the “richest” country in the world, at least regarding material wealth. Yet there are poor, and homeless, in every city in the US. I think we are very far away from claiming the title of being civilized.
The two most important issues in the world are poverty and war. I have some degree of confidence that we can deal with everything else.
Anyone who claims to use Jesus as their guide needs to look at his guidance for helping the poor.
Anyone who claims to use logic as their guide should understand that poverty equals crime and instability. The most efficient use of resources to create a more stable society is to reduce poverty.