[UK] Child poverty campaign gets comedian's backing

from Ireland On Line

A top comedian backed a campaign today to raise over four million euro to tackle the serious problem of child poverty.

The Irish American comic, Des Bishop, called upon people to act to end the hardship facing those left behind in the economic boom.

“Barnardos works directly with children in some of the most disadvantaged communities in Ireland. Areas that have been overlooked and left behind in the economic boom that has created a chasm between those who have in this society and those who have not,” Bishop said, as he backed Barnardos fundraising drive.

“As little as €7 per month can make a huge difference to the lives of the 150,000 kids who live in consistent poverty in Ireland. These kids need Barnardos’ help to get the most from the opportunities that education offers and to break the cycle of poverty.”

The children’s charity needs to raise €4.2m in voluntary funds this year to ensure it can work with some of the most vulnerable children through its network of 32 centres around the country. It is aiming to recruit 1,000 new supporters for the charity.

At the launch in St Audoen’s National School, Cook Street in Dublin, Winnie McDonagh, a Barnardos project worker, said the charity often encountered extreme hardships in communities around the country.

“You could walk into a house where a parent is working a second job to keep food on the table and a child is at home doing child minding duties. You will see youngsters who have left school at 13 or 14 to take a part-time job,” she said.

“You will see a level of need in the home which ends up with electricity not being switched on for a certain percentage of the day; where people are trying to keep heat in the home and if the heat goes off lighting a fire.”

Ms McDonagh said she had seen homes where skirting boards were pulled off the walls to light a fire.

“Sometimes when we think of poverty we like to think that it’s in another country. The problem is ‘over there’. Sometimes in current day Ireland we allow that to cover up or hide behind some of the problems in Ireland itself,” she said.

Fergus Finley, the chief executive of the charity, said it was easy to lose sight of the children who are most in need of society’s support.

“These kids have become the hidden victims of our wealth and success as a nation. It shocks me that children are being robbed of their potential, of their future. We need to give these children choices, and fair chances, through education,” he said.

Barnardos provides services for children and families, including after-school groups; home-work clubs; teen parent programmes to assist young parents in caring for their children and completing their own education.

The charity also targets the needs of individual children who may be at risk of early school leaving or who are ill-prepared socially to participate in the school environment.