Since 2021, our focus at ajaz.org has been children and families facing challenges and very difficult days in a wide variety of ways. We have been lucky to support a wide range of organisations, working in the UK and overseas, to tackle these issues.
During this time, the cost-of-living crisis in the UK, coming on the back of the pandemic, has relentlessly increased the pressure on vulnerable families with all the additional challenges that poverty brings.
Our friends at Buttle UK have recently released their State of Child Poverty Report for 2023. 1200 Frontline workers in children's services, representing over 200,000 families were interviewed. The results are horrifying. 60% of the families represented are now living in destitution, a 15% rise from last year.
The Frontline workers reported their families were unable to access the basics, as follows:
-
57% cannot afford enough food and nutrition
-
58% cannot afford gas and electricity
-
63% go without basic furniture such as beds, sofas and appliances
-
49% are not able to afford their rent or equivalent
-
65% go without IT equipment for education or employment
The full report can be found here: https://buttleuk.org/news/news-list/state-of-child-poverty-2023/
The lived reality for increasing numbers of families is hunger, cold, damp, insecure housing and social isolation, with access to education for their children becoming a luxury as the costs involved - fares, uniforms, access to equipment, etc, are simply too high. Poverty brings with it the aligned challenges of stress, mental health challenges, domestic violence, parental separation and more. And all this is in the long shadow of the pandemic, which continues to affect families in so many different ways across the land.
To play our part to help, into 2024, ajaz.org will focus on children and families in the UK. We will work with organisations supporting those in real and immediate crises, including those related to poverty, along with bereavement, ill-health, family breakdown and domestic abuse.
We will bring more news of our direction, the organisations with us and the work that they do in the Autumn.