"despite destitution" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It can be used to refer to a situation where a person still manages to overcome a difficult or difficult circumstance, such as poverty or extreme lack of material possessions. For example, "Despite destitution, he remained determined to pursue his education and pursue his dreams."
There have been fears of unrest among the estimated four million made homeless by Pakistan's largest floods, but most of those interviewed in the area showed a resigned dignity despite their destitution.
Despite the destitution of this community, all children have the basic right to health, welfare and quality of life.
From 1918 to 1921 Georgia was an independent state; despite war and destitution, the period witnessed an explosion of poetry, prose, and "happenings"—anarchistic artistic and political outbursts stimulated by the mixture in Tbilisi of the refugee Russian avant-garde and Georgian poets heady with their liberation.
For example, someone with drug addiction problems may still fall into debt or destitution despite financial literacy.
Research that Graham has done in Afghanistan shows that, despite three decades of war and widespread destitution, Afghans are, on average, a pretty cheerful lot.
Militant groups in the Niger Delta have attacked pipelines frequently in recent years, both to highlight the destitution in the Niger Delta despite the region's oil wealth and to steal oil and sell it on the black market.
It also said that she could not be trusted because she had been convicted for using false papers to work – despite it being a desperate measure to stave off destitution after her asylum case was rejected.
Despite that, Mr Mbeki's family history is one of destitution, as apartheid systematically destroyed black hopes and opportunities.
Happily, and despite the dramatically eyelashed talking heads praising a philosophy of voluntary destitution from what look like very well-appointed living quarters, episode one suggests that bohemians have been peddling une load de vieux bolloques for a good old while.
They were near to destitution.
