Seasonal celebrations draw attention to the less fortunate and encourage to donate money to charities, or toys to social services, or canned goods to the food bank. Yet, global organizations and local services helping children in need face challenges on a daily basis.
Selected to win a National Award for $25,000 by KIA Canada for being one of the most innovative and impactful charities, KidSafe recently implemented a Writers' Room as a literacy project. Its on-going task, however, is to raise sufficient funding to secure its support of children in need throughout the year.
The KidSafe Project Society in Vancouver
With a mission to “provide nurturing safe havens to at-risk inner-city elementary school students when schools are traditionally closed,” it shows how it takes a whole community to raise a child.
In an office supplied by Queen Alexandra Elementary School on East Broadway, Executive Director Gerhard Maynard explains that the organization helps children from six elementary schools by providing nutritious food, safety after school hours, learning activities, and fun during school vacations.
Inner-city parents (often a single parent) cannot provide a healthy diet, or supervision at home while they are at work, or childcare during school breaks. KidSafe bridges the gap because, "All children deserve to grow up in a safe supportive environment where they feel cared for and have opportunities to learn and grow," Maynard says. "KidSafe is about providing our most vulnerable children with those opportunities."
KidSafe's Help is All About the Kids
Although KidSafe is supported by regular sponsors, keeping all needs covered is an on-going challenge. Sometimes the need might be to fund a second week of school break.
KidSafe was founded in 2003 after an eight-year old child was brutally beaten during a school vacation. Because vulnerable children need a safe place when school is out, a community came together as inner-city school principals, citizens, and the Vancouver Sun joined forces to launch the project.
Statistics show that Vancouver is a generous city. In 2009, KidSafe helped 400 children from six inner-city schools in the middle of a recession. It would not have been possible without the commitment of the School Board of Education, organizations, corporate donations, and individuals holding fundraising events such as golf tournaments, and other creative ways of raising money, or getting equipment for activities. KidSafe is being helped in different ways:
- donating special items to be sold on the internet
- collecting donations instead of birthday gifts
- including KidSafe in a wedding registry
- donating tickets to events
- donating sports equipment
- helping with the school KidSafe garden
- buying KidSafe holiday and all-occasion cards
- contacting Kidsafe by email to find out how to help
KidSafe provides fun experiences that children would not have otherwise, and yet are an inherent part of their development. Furthermore, it offers a special program for teens.
Kidsafe’s Educational Leadership Program
Designed to prepare teens to transition to high school, it aims at having adolescents chose KidSafe instead of the potentially dangerous streets.
Teens are guided to assist and mentor younger kids. They get pre-employment skills with courses in babysitting, first aid, safe food, resumé writing, and involvement in community service. Through adventurous sport activities in nature, they learn to be part of a team, gain self-esteem, and hopefully “a vision that will last a lifetime.”
A World of Children Needing Help
It does not take a third world nation to harbour children living in poverty. An abusing home, addiction, unemployment, lack of support, or unforeseen circumstances can quickly take a turn for the worst. When children are born in this type of situations they face a life of danger and a hopeless future. Education can break the poverty cycle by providing skills while a program like KidSafe "helps every child become a contributing member of our society."
The Convention on the Right of the Child established in 1989, recognizes that a child has "the right to survival, to develop to the fullest, to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life."
At the global level, organizations contribute to fight poverty with education. UNESCO and its Programme for the Education of Children in Need privately raised US$34 million directly attributed to support 340 projects in over 90 countries.
Although such global scope can be overwhelming, according to Free the Children Organization, research shows that for every $1 that a country invests in giving children a good start in life, the country saves $7 in costs for unmet basic needs.
“Helping children out of poverty is therefore morally, socially and economically productive.”
Sources:
- The KidSafe Project Society
- Programme for the Education of Children in Need: UNESCO
- Child Poverty in Canada: Free the Children
- Convention on the Rights of the Child: UNICEF
Marie-Claude Arnott - Marie-Claude Arnott writes about topics that interest her, from experience and with passion.
