Poor old Zachary. This 14 year old European boy has spent his youth living in comfort, but has somehow slipped into poverty. He's lost the ability to speak, he can't make eye contact with people, he has a crippling internet addiction, and he doesn't sleep well at night.

In the video above, produced by a Canadian organisation, we get to meet Zachary and find out how it all went so horribly wrong for the lad. It turns out that Zachary isn't living in extreme poverty, but in "relational poverty", and a close-knit Vietnamese family is determined to show generosity and support to help him through it. Have a look and see what you think!

The Sponsor A Wealthy Child website contains more heartbreaking stories of children like Zachary, who have been sponsored by families from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It's a campaign designed to question the conventional notion that technology is wealth, and a lack of it is poverty. While there's no doubt that access to phones, education, and information improves opportunities in life, is there something that can get lost along the way if we're not paying attention?

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Michael Wilson