Luiza MorrellSave the Children, the international charity which was first set up in May 1919, have turned their attention to children in the UK for their first major British appeal, hoping to raise £500,000.
The charity spoke to more than 1500 children aged 8 – 16 from 35 different schools across the UK, and 5000 parents with incomes grouped as ‘living in poverty/being on a low income’ (£0-£16,999), modest incomes’ (£17,000-£29,999) and ‘better-off/more affluent households’ (£30,000+), in their report “Child Poverty 2012: It Shouldn’t Happen Here”, which has shown that it is the UK’s poorest children that are bearing the greatest burden of the recession.
According to the report, one in eight of the poorest children in the UK go without at least one hot meal a day, and one in ten of the UK’s poorest parents have to cut back on food for themselves to make sure their children have enough to eat. But it’s not just about the essentials that these children are missing out on, some of them are without learning resources such as the internet at home, or having happy childhood experiences like family holidays, being able to have friends round for tea, or even celebrate their birthdays.
Spencer Murphy, who has also helped a charity campaign for Surfers Against Sewage and taken portraits of many TV, film and sports stars, worked with Save the Children to produce a series of portraits of children, who also wrote down their thoughts on poverty. These images of the children, along with their hand-written thoughts, really show the importance of this campaign, and what the children themselves worry about, as 9 year old Jaden writes, “Not having toys, no shoes.”
Some of the images can be seen on Spencer’s website here with the report available to read and information on how to donate on the Save the Children website here.
