Have you ever started reading something that has got you thinking to the point where you absolutely have to go off and investigate further just to see what it means for your situation. Well today I was reading a report ‘Beds for Kids’ by the #endfurniturepoverty campaign in which they note that over 10,000 children in poverty in Liverpool don’t have a bed to sleep in. I wondered if that was the case for Liverpool, what might the numbers look like for Bromsgrove, Redditch or Birmingham? Well a bit of digging around and using some figures from the Buttle Charity (they estimate that 400,000 children across the UK- 10% of total children in poverty – don’t have a bed to sleep in) I managed to come up with some local figures. So here are some figures for your perusal:
- Bromsgrove – 4,180 children live in poverty – over 400 children will not have a bed to sleep in
- Redditch – 6,784 children live in poverty, almost 700 children will not have a bed to sleep in
- Birmingham – 100,000 children live in poverty, 10,000 children will not have a bed to sleep in.
I don’t know about you, but I find that incredibly sad and quite angry. I’m angry because we know from stories we have been told that when children don’t have a bed, it’s not just a matter of them missing a bit of furniture, it affects their lives. They have difficulty sleeping, which in turn can lead to poor school attendance and when they do attend, lack of concentration and poor behaviour which often ends up in low achievement and/or exclusions. I’m sad because I wish that we could just miraculously provide a bed for every one one of those children, but we do our best with the help of our wonderful donors and our fantastic team of volunteers, not forgetting the incredible staff. We are ending #furniturepoverty one bed at a time.