Columbus St. Francis DeSales High School sophomores experienced what it’s like to struggle with poverty while participating in a simulation during a class retreat earlier this month.
The Think Tank Cost of Poverty Experience is a program brought to the school on Oct. 7-8 by Deacon Dave Bezusko, the diocese’s director of Catholic Charities.
In the simulation, students were divided into family groups that experience the challenges of poverty. Each family was given a number instead of a name because “many families in poverty feel that they are just a number without dignity,” Deacon Bezusko said.
The simulation was broken into four periods of 15 minutes. Each family member had different tasks to complete such as paying bills, finding work or transportation, obtaining childcare or buying groceries.
DeSales student Malynn Saka oversaw the Mega Mart store in the simulation and said she noticed that “most people didn’t have enough money to buy healthy, let alone affordable groceries.” And by the end of the simulation, there were 14 families who didn’t go to the grocery store. “This goes to show just how many families go hungry when faced with poverty,” she said.
The experience made her “realize how hard it is to be in poverty.”
Not only were some not able to buy food, countless families were evicted from their homes.
“Eviction is a huge problem that lots of families in poverty face,” Deacon Bezusko said.
Sophomore Joseph Vemboi was part of a family group. He stepped into the shoes of an uncle who migrated from Mexico to the United States.
Vemboi said his eyes were opened to “how hard it is for people to live in poverty, especially those who don’t speak English.”
He shared that he felt frustrated throughout the exercise because there were so many obstacles for him to get the help he needed, but most of the time he felt overlooked or underappreciated.
Sophomore Dylan Csee also was part of a family, playing the role of a Hispanic grandmother. He learned that “living in poverty makes it impossible to do even the smallest things … even communicating is difficult.”
By the end of the four-week immersion experience, he said he felt that he could really understand how people in poverty are limited in various ways.
Other students voiced that they felt “disappointed, mad or frustrated” but came away with more compassion for impoverished families.
“To suffer is what compassion means,” Deacon Bezusko said.
“We all need hope,” Deacon Bezusko added, as it is proclaimed in Matthew 25:35-36: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
Keeping in mind that “we all have the dignity of being a child of God,” Deacon Bezusko stressed that “we need to understand our brothers and sisters in need better” while keeping in mind the Scripture passage: “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:40).
In a video played for the students, one of the women represented in the simulation reminded the participants that “I am not just a number. I deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. … We need less programs and more people to walk alongside me. … I’m not a problem to be solved but a person. My life has purpose. We all have something to give.”
At the end, students had the opportunity to go to the chapel for prayer in silent adoration to reflect on how Jesus comes to them in their own poverty.
“I’m proud of all the retreats we put on at St. Francis DeSales High School. Each one provides students with a different experience, but this one in particular guides students in service to others,” said Mike McGoldrick, vice principal of student services at DeSales.
To learn more about the Cost of Poverty Experience, visit www.thinktank-inc.org/cope.
For questions about the program, contact Deacon Bezusko at dbezusko@columbuscatholic.org.
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