Local groups always need more money and volunteers, but at least they exist. Not so in Russia. More than 100,000 homeless people lived on Moscow's streets in 1992. There was only one homeless shelter. It had 12 beds.
Troubled teens are more likely to be arrested than to receive counseling.
The government's reaction to struggling parents is to terminate custody of their children. Then there's the economy. Hospitals reuse surgical gloves and syringes, parents cannot buy medicine for their disabled children, teachers have gone for months without paychecks and grandparents beg in the streets for food money. But poverty afflicts much of the globe. Because you have to start somewhere.