“POVERTY does exist in our community,” St Vincent de Paul Society’s John D’Souza said ahead of Anti-Poverty Week, which today.
Mount Gambier’s Vinnies will host a free community barbecue today from 10.30am to raise awareness of poverty and its impact on the community.
As Vinnies’ South East regional president, Mr D’Souza has seen a number of families, individuals and children in need of help to fund or source food.
He said there were many members of the Mount Gambier community living under the poverty line.
“The worst thing is that if a family is living under the poverty line, happiness goes out the window and other serious problems can surface,” Mr D’Souza said.
As the cost of living continues to rise, Mr D’Souza said he was concerned more people could be subject to poverty.
“Everything goes up, power, water, rent – all of it, but never wages of common people,” he said.
“The low and middle class people are constantly neglected and this is where the problem starts.”
Since June this year, Vinnies has seen 881 people from the South East region, 638 of which were children, in need of food, furniture and more.
“Those figures are just for Vinnies, if we think about the other agencies in the area and add it all up those numbers would skyrocket,” Mr D’Souza said.
“You may not be able to see poverty on the surface, but it is very real – not everything is milk and honey.”
The public is welcome to attend the Anti-Poverty Week barbecue.
