A Village Overseas
QCA Unit 10

What's the big idea?

Imagine how different your life would be if you lived in a place where there was no running water or electricity. Or where there were no big supermarkets to buy things, or cars to carry them home in.

This is the reality for thousands of people living in villages in Africa, Asia and South and Central America.

These countries are sometimes called 'developing countries' because they are less economically developed than places like the United Kingdom.

The people that live there have traditional lifestyles which have not changed for hundreds of years. They collect their water from the village well, grow their own food and build their own homes. They do not have cars to travel around in, or tractors to help farm their land. The children may not go to school. When they are ill there is no doctor nearby.

But places are constantly changing. Running water, electricity, education and medical services are now reaching some of these remote villages. This helps to improve some things in the people's lives.

But not all these changes are for the better. Some villages get smaller and even disappear as more and more people move to the world's big cities in search of work and a better lifestyle. Then the cities become more crowded and people have to live in poor conditions called shanty