Reply to: Save the children

[d000hg]

Charity still works on business principles... spend money on advertising to bring in more money.

[vetran]

As I said you will probably find that most issues come down to being unable to claim the correct benefits or spend the resulting money wisely.

If there are holes in Benefits lets see save the children document them and ask for funds to lobby for them to be changed.

If education is needed let them suggest that is the problem.

but don't expect us to believe poverty stalks the UK in the same way it does in Africa. We have the will as a people to eradicate it, in Africa the people don't have that luxury.

I watched this last night, fascinating but clearly a way charities can help people

BBC Four - The Toilet: An Unspoken History

the takeaway from this was that to provide safe & effective sanitation for 10 + people in the third world costs £17. 1.5million children die of dysentery every year. now where do you think the millions they spent on those adverts could have been better spent?

Combine this with the probable political angle of supporting labour by attacking 'coalition cuts' I for one am not impressed.

[EternalOptimist]

Social workers ignore all but the worse cases.

No one with any sense stays as a social worker as it's sh*t work hence there is a shortage and those who remain have a large case load.

BTW I know some ex-social workers and 2 current ones. The current ones do their best to talk anyone out of doing the job. They are still in it because every few years they go off and do something else.

you miss the point.

dont use anti poverty tactics to attack poor care.
sort out the social aspect.

we dont have poverty here any more.

in other parts of the world, it's different.

[NotAllThere]

My wife worked in an inner-city school a few years ago. They had to cope with kids coming to school in wet clothes - the uniform was their only decent set of clothes and if it didn't dry in time... kids coming to school have had no breakfast because the parents (feckless or otherwise) didn't have money to buy bread. There's not as much poverty in the UK as in Africa - that's obvious. And it shouldn't exist at all... but it does, and that where charities stand in the gap.

Oh - and it was Save The Children UK that provided my wife and her family with furniture and clothes when they arrived in the UK in 1980.

[SueEllen]

40 years ago, there was poverty in this country.

nowadays if a kid goes hungry it's because of bad care.


we have laws and agencies to sort out bad care. let them do their job

Social workers ignore all but the worse cases.

No one with any sense stays as a social worker as it's sh*t work hence there is a shortage and those who remain have a large case load.

BTW I know some ex-social workers and 2 current ones. The current ones do their best to talk anyone out of doing the job. They are still in it because every few years they go off and do something else.

[SueEllen]

Agai I will say it. yes it may help these kids if save the children get involved but surely their priorities - given that they do not have endless resources why on earth are they not giving the starving, homeless and disease ridden kids of Africa their full attention? Why now are they getting involved. If there are children suffering from poverty now there were also children suffering from the same poverty 5 years ago.

I am sorry to be cynical but what they are doing in the UK is entirely politically motivated.

The government use to finance charities in the UK to do social work for them as charities do it cheaper by using lots of volunteers than goverment departments and local government can.

The government has cut the money it gives to charities directly and indirectly through local councils, so now you will hear of all charities serving all aspects of the UK community asking for donations to help people in the UK.

For example many areas have mini-buses to take old people out to go shopping or to a day centre once a week. These mini-buses were driven by volunteers but the fuel and bus rental was paid for by government money. Now the funding for these have been cut so the buses don't run.

The old people who use these buses are the type of old people who can bearly do anything on their own and also don't have anyone to help them so sit isolated at home.

So next time you volunteer ( if you do) find out where the majority of the funding comes from you will be surprised.

[EternalOptimist]

40 years ago, there was poverty in this country.

nowadays if a kid goes hungry it's because of bad care.


we have laws and agencies to sort out bad care. let them do their job

[DodgyAgent]

"should be" being the important phrase here. A far lower % of our kids are in real trouble than in Africa but there are still some around. It's more shocking it happens here where as you say, we have far better infrastructure in place (even with its flaws).

Fair enough but where are the kids that are starving in the UK. Those that are suffering do so because of parental abuse. So save the children's model Food kitchens, medical aid etc) is totally inappropriate for the problems that children face here in the UK.

[d000hg]

"should be" being the important phrase here. A far lower % of our kids are in real trouble than in Africa but there are still some around. It's more shocking it happens here where as you say, we have far better infrastructure in place (even with its flaws).

[DodgyAgent]

Why does that matter? Children suffering because of terrible parents are still suffering.

And there are LOTS of families who don't fritter money on Sky or fags who can't pay for food and clothes for their kids. Just because you live in a middle-class bubble and never cross paths with them (why would you), doesn't mean they're not there.

Is it so hard to believe a benefits system which gives too much to some people would be flawed the other way at times?

This is what Food Banks are for, tbh I would be as ignorant to all this myself except our church has links to our local food bank and debt relief charities and we get to hear about the real people they help. They know a chancer when they see one, a mother who collapses in tears when given a couple of tins of beans is not a chancer.

I always hear alarm bells when I hear the patronising words "real people" But let us set that aside.

In the UK there is a welfare state that should be looking after kids whether it is or it isnt our kids are fed and have a roof over their heads, which is more than can said of kids in Africa. If a kid is ill then it can go down to the hospital and get treatment. My point is not to say we have no problems - we most certainly do- but that the problems our kids suffer are irrelevant compared to the problems that kids in Africa face.

Agai I will say it. yes it may help these kids if save the children get involved but surely their priorities - given that they do not have endless resources why on earth are they not giving the starving, homeless and disease ridden kids of Africa their full attention? Why now are they getting involved. If there are children suffering from poverty now there were also children suffering from the same poverty 5 years ago.

I am sorry to be cynical but what they are doing in the UK is entirely politically motivated.

[bless 'em all]

They should be recruitment agents

Christ, they've barely any dignity now .....

[d000hg]

How much of the poverty is down to "lifestyle choices" or poor parenting

Why does that matter? Children suffering because of terrible parents are still suffering.

And there are LOTS of families who don't fritter money on Sky or fags who can't pay for food and clothes for their kids. Just because you live in a middle-class bubble and never cross paths with them (why would you), doesn't mean they're not there.

Is it so hard to believe a benefits system which gives too much to some people would be flawed the other way at times?

This is what Food Banks are for, tbh I would be as ignorant to all this myself except our church has links to our local food bank and debt relief charities and we get to hear about the real people they help. They know a chancer when they see one, a mother who collapses in tears when given a couple of tins of beans is not a chancer.

[DodgyAgent]

So do you think families in Africa should get state benefits? Or should they open supermarkets?

They should be recruitment agents

[mudskipper]

UK child poverty: it shouldn't happen here | Save the Children UK

Just where exactly are their priorities? Looking after fat kids with roofs over their heads or this?

Poverty in Africa: Inside the Problem

So do you think families in Africa should get state benefits? Or should they open supermarkets?

[escapeUK]

I don't think your average Joe in Africa really has much say in that.

They thought the same of the peasants in France and England. Look what happened.

Let Africa evolve, thank goodness no one meddled in our development thinking they knew better.