In the early seventies, I taught in an extremely poor area of Glasgow called Bluevale, the wrong side of Duke Street. The pupils were malnourished, badly housed (some in condemned properties infested with rats and cockroaches) and had impetigo, scabies, head lice and so on. Their parent/s were often drunk or violent. They were showered once a week by a lady who brought clean towels and examined their skin. They were sent to Mugdock Residential School for six weeks' respite.
Their poverty was indeed heartbreaking (I truly loved those bairns) BUT I can assure anyone who hasn't been there that the things I've seen in Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Ghana and so on were MUCH WORSE.