1. Poverty within white South Africa
When stories are told about African poverty, race often seems to play a
large part. Based in Senegal, Reuters photographer Finbarr travelled to
South Africa earlier this year and visited one of a growing number of
squatter camps populated mostly by Afrikaners - white South Africans -
to document their stories and help show that, despite the fact that
impoverished blacks in the region far outnumber whites, poverty is a
human issue, not necessarily racial. O'Reilly: "While most white South
Africans still enjoy lives of privilege and relative wealth, the number of
poor whites has risen steadily over the past 15 years. Researchers now
estimate some 450,000 whites, of a total white population of 4.5 million,
live below the poverty line and 100,000 are struggling just to survive in
places such Coronation Park, a former caravan camp currently home to
more than 400 white squatters. Formerly comfortable Afrikaners
recently forced to live on the fringes of society see themselves as victims
of 'reverse-apartheid' that they say puts them at an even greater
disadvantage than the millions of poor black South Africans.“
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