Children who live without vegetables, a dentist or heating: “We eat the same thing every day, I can’t afford anything else”

The pandemic deprived Amara and her husband of their livelihood. She worked as a cleaner, he as a store boy. Since then, no more money has come to her house than the minimum vital income. They are the parents of three children, the eldest of whom has autism and the two youngest go to high school. “We don’t have anyone who can give us a pot of lentils or salt. We mix the water with the milk for breakfast,” says the woman. A third of the families that Save The Children attends in Spain live on 100 euros per month per person and are at risk of extreme poverty, according to a report published by the NGO on Thursday. One of those families is Amara’s, who uses a fictitious name to maintain the privacy of her loved ones.

“The situation is very serious. We have 733,000 boys and girls who live in a situation of daily material deprivation. We are the country of the European Union, after Romania, with more children at risk of poverty”, explains Andrés Conde, general director of Save The Children Spain. The organization has surveyed 1,187 families that attend its programs and that belong to the most vulnerable population, socially and economically. Half are two-parent households, and a third of them are single-parent. 64% live with a monthly income of less than a thousand euros, and 5% have no income of any kind. “We are talking about the violated rights of these children: to a healthy diet, education or decent housing,” explains Conde.

Amara’s children eat when and what they can. “I still have 50 euros to fill the cart, but now I get less things. Products that she could buy before, such as chicken or fish, are a luxury, ”says Amara. Most of the children cared for by the organization, 58%, do not eat fresh fruit or vegetables at least once a day, and 37% do not consume adequate protein. Amara’s oldest girl goes to a special education school, and at least there she can ensure a healthy diet Monday through Friday. The little ones leave the institute and eat at home, because Amara cannot pay for the dining room. “We eat practically the same thing every day, I can’t afford anything else,” laments the mother.

There are other things that Amara can’t offer her children either, like new school supplies or the opportunity to attend extracurricular activities. “It’s painful to tell them there’s no money for them to spend on recess when their friends do,” she says. Conde explains that sports, language learning or artistic activities are “out of the reach of the poor”, and that this not only affects their training, but also their social relationships. Only 44% of the children cared for by the organization are signed up for any activity. Among these children, school performance is lower due to the socioeconomic circumstances of their families. School tutoring makes up for the academic disadvantages they face, but many parents cannot afford it.

Do you follow any kind of extracurricular activity?

-I wish. At his school they do not organize free courses and I cannot afford an academy.

Access to school before the age of three is essential for development, especially in vulnerable environments, as well as for reconciliation. However, 23% of the children surveyed who could attend Early Childhood Education do not. “It is essential to correct the inequality due to socioeconomic origin, which limits the opportunities for these children,” explains Conde. The director of Save the Children insists on the importance of guaranteeing the rights of minors with specific measures: affordable and accessible places for all parents who want to take their children to Early Childhood Education; a free school canteen, to ensure a balanced diet; and educational reinforcement, also free, for those who cannot afford it.

Housing is the other big problem for poor families, according to the report. Those with fewer resources dedicate 63% to the house, a very strong burden on the family budget. More than half, like Amara, have to spend the winter without heating. “My daughter tells me that she is cold. To shower, study, everything. She sees that there are children who go to school hot and she asks me: ‘Why not here? ”, She relates. 47.2% of minors live in families that have suffered power cuts or that, very often, stop putting on the heating or air conditioning because the bill they have to face is unaffordable. In addition, a large number of the houses are unsanitary, have little light and a lot of noise. “Then they have a fever, flu, and I have to take them to the doctor,” Amara narrates. Single-parent families exceed the effort of families with two parents by 12 points, and the sacrifice is also higher in families of migrant origin.

Many, like Amara’s, have to spend the winter without heating. “My daughter tells me that she is cold. To shower, study, everything. She sees that there are children who go to school hot and she asks me: ‘Why not here? ”, She relates. 47.2% of minors live in families that have never, almost never, or only sometimes been able to keep their homes at an adequate temperature, which means that they have suffered supply cuts or that, very frequently, stop turn on the heating or air conditioning because the bill they have to face is unaffordable.

Many other families like hers cannot afford, for example, glasses or hearing aids for their children, which are not covered by the public health system, according to the report. 26% of these families state that they have not been able to go with them to the dentist. The 10% who cannot get medical supplies, such as hearing aids or prostheses. Amara herself needs glasses. “I’m going blind, but I can’t go to the ophthalmologist. The child needs them too, but we can’t afford them. And my girl needs to go to the dentist, but with what money do I take her? ”, She says.

The moment of solutions

Conde points out that the most effective way to combat child poverty would be a parenting aid benefit of 100 euros per month for all minors, until they reach 18 years of age, something currently non-existent in Spain. The 2023 budgets included the extension of the current aid of 100 euros per month that working mothers currently receive, so that women who receive an unemployment benefit or who have contributed at least 30 days from birth will also receive it. of the baby, a measure that is provided for in the Family Law, whose approval was scheduled this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers, but has been postponed. In any case, it is far from the universality requested by children’s organizations. “Aid for parenting is a pending issue in Spain, extended to many other countries. Our country invests half that of European countries in family and childhood, and that is the first thing that must be corrected”, warns the director of Save the Children Spain.

The organization calculates that raising a child in Spain costs 672 euros per month, an unaffordable expense for vulnerable families, but essential for children. “We are facing the perfect opportunity to do so with the Family Law, which is now blocked, and with the implementation of the European Child Guarantee, which pushes us to safeguard the rights of all children,” says Conde. But they not only defend it for social justice, but also for economic criteria. “Either we invest now in our childhood or we are going to have a third of the population always depending on public aid,” she warns.

Amara also asks: “When winter comes, everything is worse. Children need more clothes, shoes. They are cold inside and outside the house. We can’t warm up. They have to realize that.” For now, she hopes to be able to celebrate Christmas Eve, and for next year, for inflation to stop affecting her shopping basket: “To be able to buy plantains, meat, cassava again…”. Amara repeats that hers is not an isolated case, just “one more story of those lived by thousands of families.”