It is widely assumed that education has a positive effect on people living in poverty. Consequently, well intentioned programmes aim at helping poor people by promoting education. However, the underlying assumption that education really is helpful, is rarely questioned. This paper tries to fill the gap between (scarce) participatory poverty research, theory and policies. Poverty reduction programmes can only be efficient if the perspectives and needs of poor people are integrated. Thereafter the perception of poverty by the people concerned is crucial when strategies for poverty reduction are created. The initial research question is developed from this presumption: “How do people (in particular children) experience poverty?” In order to get a better idea of what living in poverty means the second research questions tries to deepen the first one by asking: “What are the impacts of poverty for poor people and what are the main problems they have to deal with?” Nevertheless, the focus of the paper is on support measures and the perception of education. Subsequently, the third research question asks: “How is education perceived?”, followed by the last research question “What kind of support do they need to succeed in these living conditions?”. These two research questions pay special attention to poor people’s perception of education and the question whether education is experienced as useful support in the precarious living conditions. The findings of this paper and the study should first of all help to create a better understanding of poverty from the perspective of poor people. Secondly, the connection between education, poverty and poverty reduction strategies should be clarified. And lastly, possible support measures for people and especially children living in poverty should be identified through participatory poverty research.

As research design a case study was chosen to answer the research questions and to meet the objectives of participatory poverty research. Three methods, namely qualitative interviews, children’s drawings and pictures are combined. The focal point of the case study is a twelve year old boy living in an informal settlement in the “Cape Flats” (Cape Town, South Africa). The boy himself, members of his family, neighbours and a teacher from the local school were interviewed according to an interview guideline (evaluation after Mayring 1997). Moreover a disposable camera was given to the boy to take pictures of the community (evaluation according to Pilarczyk and Mietzner 2005). His pictures are complemented by pictures which I have taken during the course of research. The pictures are primarily used to explore how children perceive their environment and to gain insight in the "world" of poor people. ...*

Although some results of the case study might be limited to the specific context of South Africa the case study creates an overall picture of what poverty means which is applicable for the European context and can be generalized. People experience poverty as fragmentation of families, insecure social networks and growing distrust in the government. The main problems people in poverty have to deal with are substance abuse and addiction, insufficient infrastructure and a lack of income earning opportunities. People rely first and foremost on support networks within their community - which makes the growing insecurity of those even more alarming. Regarding education, people have controversial points of view; some assume that education has a positive effect while others do not see any impact of education on their life. Nevertheless certain problems which arise due to the education system were identified.