Sociology

In the USA, there are many people who live in poverty as there are in other countries in the world. In the year 2004, poverty rate was about 12.7, 8 being Whites, 25 being blacks, 8 being Asians and 22 being Hispanics (Naczelnic, n.d. para.1). However, there are very many myths about poverty in USA. It is believed that poverty is a minority issue and also that the government aids are enough to cater for the situation. The rich also believe that poverty is for the lazy who continue to have many children so as to qualify for more aid.

To curb this problem, the government has put in place various programs to help the poor. The assistance offered by these programs includes but not limited to, food aids, housing assistance and cash grants. Some of these programs are the Medicaid, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Women, Infants and Children, (WIC), Food Stamps among others. This paper shall only discuss about Women, Infants and Chidden (WIC) and the Technical Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
This is a program in the state of Oregon which is funded by United States Department of Agriculture. The main goal of the program is to provide nutrition support to the most risky members of the community, namely the pregnant mothers and young children. To achieve this, they use nutrition education as well as issuing of nutrition supplements to their target groups.

Categorically, those who benefit from this program are the breastfeeding women with children less than twelve months old, non breastfeeding women with children less than six months old, infants and children below five years of age and the pregnant women. Beneficiaries must also live in Oregon, have nutrition need risk and also have a house hold income of less than 185  of  poverty guidelines (Oregon gov., 2010 para.6).

Children are evaluated after every six months to determine their eligibility. They can continue to benefit until the age of five. For the breast feeding women, they remain in the program up to a period of one year after delivery, while their colleagues who are not breastfeeding remain in the program for only six months. Finally, the pregnant women remain in the program through their pregnancy period and also for the first two months after delivery (Oregon gov., 2010, para.12).

According to Oregon gov. report, not only does WIC improve health, but it is a program that is very helpful to the poor especially because it helps them save money. Further studies reveal that, in the year 2006 it was rated as the most effective program (2010). In addition, about a hundred thousand women and children in Oregon benefit from the program every month.

From the program, one can learn that the poor people are classified as those who cannot afford proper medical care as well as those who cannot take good care of their health and nutrition needs. Despite the fact that the program is very helpful to its target group, it also leaves out some groups of people that require specialized nutrition support like the elderly and also those suffering from the chronic illness like the HIV, who are also poor. One cannot deny the fact that this program is helpful since it is indicated that one hundred applicants benefit from it every month. However, it can only be termed as a short term goal of alleviating poverty.

Temporary Assistance for the Needy Families (TANF)
This is one of the United States programs to assist the needy in the society. Its main aim is to provide the poor families, who have children with financial assistance temporarily so as to reduce poverty through employment and also proper use of community resources. It is a program that is also very helpful as it provides other services like housing, employment, child care among others.

The members of the community that are eligible are those that possess very little or no assets at all and also those who do not have any income. Every month, these families are entitled to a grant in reference to the size of the family (Oregon gov, 2009, para.2). Further studies reveal that currently, a family consisting of three members gets a maximum of  528 every month. The program is divided in to two pre-TANF and post-TANF and thus the eligibility period is determined by the program the family is in. In the pre-TANF program a family may remain there for a period of one day to 45 days. In the post-TANF-program, parents who fail to qualify for the pre-TANF are given financial help to cover their expenses before they get fully settled, (Oregon gov, 2009 para.6 7). To some extent, the program is successful as it helps to minimize the number of families living below the poverty line.

Conclusion
From these programs, one can learn that poverty is determined by what a person owns and families with children are more prone to poverty especially in cases where both parents have no income. It is also a common belief that by working hard, poverty can be eliminated and that is the main reason why some of these programs help people to look for employment. Surprisingly, even with such programs people continue to live in poverty. The aids from the government cannot be enough to help people out of their poor conditions.