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Megan
In Recycling

How Your Recycling Helps Poverty Child

Poverty Child prides itself on the fact that 95% of your donations is used to further our mission. We are always grateful for and humbled by your generosity- you help to transform our projects from ideas into lifelines for impoverished children. We want you to know how your recycling helps our cause.

Your recycling helps give flexibility.

The funds that are generated from your recycled goods are unrestricted income. This means funds are pooled to become available for where the most need is.  The needs of the children we help change over time. So it gives us the flexibility to invest the funds in response to their changing needs, either by adapting our existing projects or creating new ones if necessary.  As well as this, it allows us to make up for any shortfalls of funds that we have. For example, we used recycling income to make up for a funding shortfall in our project with Fairplay For All Foundation. It was your recycling efforts that allowed the project to then reach its full potential.

Your recycling helps to fund vital research.

It is different to secure funding for research and data collection. Donors appear to be more willing to provide tangible aid such as food and clothing. Yet, the research and the data for our projects is just as vital. Without this research, it would be hard to know what the children need and how they can be helped. Our research is the foundation of our projects, enabling us to build relationships with the children that we find in the developing world. The funds from the recycling initiative contributes to this data collection. It helps us to build our projects based on crucial data. It is an extremely important starting point for many of our projects.

It’s a vital part of our fundraising strategy.

The income generated by recycling is relatively small, but that doesn’t mean to say it isn’t important. The programme allows us to diversify our income and therefore protect our projects, to some extent, against any drops in revenue. During times of economic and/or political uncertainty, people are more cautious about how and where they spend their earnings. As a result, donating to charity is often dropped from household budgets. Your recycling helps us protect our projects from fluctuating income in uncertain times.

Most importantly, your recycling helps slum and street children.

Aside from our different projects, our wider mission is to break the cycle of poverty for many children in the developing world. Whether your donations are funding our research, data collection, or tangible aid, they are contributing to this mission. Your time and efforts are helping us to make a real difference in the world. By getting involved with our initiative, your recycling is successfully changing lives.  Click the link to find out more about our work and our projects in developing countries.

Megan
In Recycling

5 Simple Steps For Decluttering Using KonMari

konmari method steps for decluttering and recycling

Whether it’s time for a spring clean, you’re moving house, or there’s too much clutter in your home, decluttering is always worthwhile. There’s nothing like a clutter-free home to leave you feeling organised and cleansed. It seems that decluttering has recently become quite the phenomenon. With Marie Kondo’s growing fame, more people than ever seem enthusiastic about decluttering. If your house is in need of a declutter, we can help. Consider this “Poverty Child meets KonMari”. Below are 5 simple steps for decluttering your home. These are based on the guidance of Marie Kondo and her KonMari method for tidying. Once you have established which items you no longer want to keep, you can recycle them with us. Creating a tidy and organised space has never been so simple.

Commit yourself to the task of decluttering

This is Marie Kondo’s first rule of decluttering. Before starting what can seem like the tedious task of tidying, get yourself into a positive mindset. Remind yourself of your motivation for decluttering. As the KonMari method emphasises, imagine your ideal lifestyle. Let this guide you. A decluttered home will bring you better organisation, increased productivity and less stress. If you’re using the KonMari method for the first time, keep reminding yourself that it will be interesting and inspiring to try something new. Remember that all the goods you decide to get rid of will be recycled with us. This will help to fund our projects in developing countries. You’ll have played a part in helping vulnerable children that are subject to a life in slums and on the streets.

Tidy by category, not by location

Part of the KonMari method is that you tidy according to the category of your items, not by their location. Don’t tidy by room, tidy by category. One of Marie Kondo’s rules is that you stick to the order. You start with clothes, then books, and then move on to papers, miscellaneous items and sentimental items. Gather your items into these categories before sorting through them.

Ask yourself, “does this item bring me joy?”

One of Marie Kondo’s main principles for the KonMari method is that you focus on what brings you joy. You should think about what you can keep instead of what you can discard. Once you have your categories sorted, go through each item and ask “does this item bring me any joy?” If your answer is yes, put the item into a pile of things to keep. If it no longer sparks joy, put the item in a pile of belongings to send to our recycling initiative. You can check out all the items we can accept under the “donate” tab on our website. We are happy to accept broken items, so don’t worry if things aren’t working as they should be.

Contact us for postage materials

If your stuff weighs 10kg or more altogether, you can request a recycling sack from us. Alternatively, if your items weigh less than this, you can ask us for an address label. We’ll email this out to you for posting your unwanted goods to us.

Send your unwanted goods to us

After all the hard work and commitment that has gone into your decluttering, it’s time to get rid of your unwanted items! If you’ve used the address label, you’ll post them out to us. If you’ve used the recycling sacks from us, we can arrange for a courier to collect the items you are kindly donating. All this information is available on our website.

Once you’ve decluttered your home, be proud of the effort you have put into creating a more organised space. You’ll soon begin to feel the benefits of having an organised and decluttered home to live in. Remember, this process isn’t just helping you and anybody else that shares your home. You’re helping us to fund our projects. These projects aim to break the vicious cycle of poverty street children are trapped in. Your donated items will help us to make a real difference.

Megan
In Recycling

Ideas For Phase 3 Of National Citizen Service (NCS)

NCS phase 3 teamwork for community project

You’ve conquered the activities your five-day NCS residential had thrown your way. You’ve mastered several life skills in phase 2. Now, you’re looking for a way to make an impact in your community. Phase 3 is all about making a difference. By using our recycling initiative as your social project, you’ll be doing nothing short of that. You will be helping your local community to declutter and come together for a common cause. But, your impact will reach even further than your local community. You will be helping to tackle the vicious poverty cycle that many vulnerable children are in. With the skills you’ve gained and our support, your community project will make a real difference.

About Our Initiative

Our recycling initiative is a unique and creative way to improve the lives of slum and street children. The items that we collect are resold for cash to fund our projects. We work to give poor children opportunities to better their lives and break the cycle of poverty. We accept many items from clothes, jewellery, unwanted gadgets and even old cars! There’s more information on the items we can collect under the “donate” tab on our website.

Some Ideas For Your Social Project

Organise a recycling event in your local community

This could be item specific or to recycle many items. For example, you could collect old mobile phones within your local community. Or, you could ask for people to bring any recyclable goods to a specific collection point. Make sure you promote your event with leaflets and posters. Tell your community what they can recycle and where they need to take their goods to. There’s more information on our website about each specific item and the conditions they must be in.

Work with local businesses to recycle items

Local businesses are always disposing of items, such as ink cartridges and laptops. These might not be of any value to the business anymore, but they are to our recycling initiative. Contact local businesses and encourage them to recycle their goods for your community project. It’s also a great way to impress employers with your effort and project management!

Get creative!

You could rally a team together and head down to your local city centre to encourage people to recycle with you. To draw attention to your project, you could get creative and dress up as a recycling item, such as a mobile phone!

Get competitive!

You could also run a competition within your community to see who can recycle the most. It could be on large competition between individuals. Or, you could run competitions between households, estates, and businesses that take part!

We’ll support your social project

Here at Poverty Child we have valuable experience in running fundraising projects. We can offer our guidance to help you execute yours. We can provide materials you need such as collection boxes and posters if necessary. We’ll also be on hand to help with the collection of your donations. You can request a recycling sack from us if you expect your donations to weigh over 10kg altogether. We’ll then arrange to collect your donations from you, free of charge.

If you’re thinking of using our recycling initiative for your NCS community project, we’d love to hear from you. Be sure to get in touch to tell us about your project, and we’ll be happy to help you in any way we can.

Megan
In Recycling

5 Ways To Recycle At Work

Work colleagues discussing recycling

Work recycling is one of the most convenient ways to do your bit for the environment and minimise the effects of the landfill crisis. Better still, by recycling with Poverty Child, your actions can have an even greater impact. Recycling will allow you to declutter, and therefore provides benefits for your personal space. As well as this, it will benefit the vulnerable children we support, that are at risk of exploitation and predatory behaviour. Through collective action, we can make a real difference. This is why work is the ideal place to recycle with our initiative.

There are so many benefits for yourself, others, and the environment by recycling at work. You can recycle your unwanted goods to declutter your workspace, encouraging your colleagues to join you. The money generated from your unwanted goods will help to fund our projects that change the lives of many children. Here are some ideas for how to use our recycling initiative at work:

1. Choose us as the charity you support.

If your organisation is looking for a charity to support, why not suggest Poverty Child? Supporting a charity is a great way to bring colleagues together for a common cause. By recycling for us, you’ll help to fund our projects. As a result, you’ll play a vital role in improving the lives of slum and street children. Improvements that are crucial to helping them find a way out of the poverty they face every day. You and your colleagues can unite and help us to create real change. But, using our recycling initiative to fundraise doesn’t just benefit these children. It also benefits you, as explained below.

2. For the benefit of employees.

Recycling your unwanted goods also means that you will feel the benefits too. By recycling goods from your workplace, you’ll be creating a tidy and clear space to work from. This has been shown to reduce stress and improve creativity. Above all, it helps your workspace to look professional. You can also recycle items from your home and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Decluttering your personal spaces can improve your health, concentration, and sleep. Decluttering is an easy way to improve your performance at work!

3. To promote an aim or mission of your company.

You could use our recycling initiative to promote your company’s goals. For example, if you have made a pledge to become more environmentally friendly, improve sustainability, or become more socially responsible, using our recycling initiative is a step in the right direction. It’s a great way to get all your colleagues involved and bring them together to achieve your goal. You can all be a part of the efforts to succeed in the mission you are aiming to accomplish.

4. To mark international awareness days.

Whether you’re looking to promote a goal, or make the workplace a better space to work, you can use international awareness days to promote your aim and strengthen your message. To mark the occasion, you could even hold a competition to see which individual or team can recycle the most. Here are some examples of great opportunities to recycle with us:

5. For corporate volunteering.

If your company allows you to take time off to volunteer with a charity, you could choose Poverty Child. Whilst volunteering with us, you could encourage your community to recycle for us. You could make it your very own project, picking up new transferrable skills along the way. You could decide on a collection point for the goods and promote the initiative in whichever way you feel is necessary. Volunteering with us will allow you to make a difference to the lives of many children in underdeveloped areas. As well as this, you’ll be helping your community to declutter and feel better! It’s a chance to be a part of our story and our mission and make a real difference beyond your workplace.

Recycling with us couldn’t be easier. We can collect your donations from you if they weigh 10kg or more in total. If they weigh less, you can use an address label to send them to us. The more people that are willing to get involved, the bigger the difference we can make. So, be sure to promote our recycling initiative in your workplace through bulletins, noticeboards, and emails.

You can recycle many items with us, from both your home and your workplace. This includes items from clothes, jewellery, ink cartridges, and even your old cars! All the items we can accept are available to view under the “donate” tab on our website.

Megan
In Recycling

5 Easy Ways To Recycle As A Student

University student thinking about recycling

Your voice, as a student, has the power to make a real difference. This isn’t limited to life on campus either. With our recycling initiative, you can make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable children. Not only this, but you’ll be doing your bit for the environment too – something we’re frequently encouraged to do. Yet whilst living busy and hectic lives, it can often seem difficult to do. But, our initiative is convenient and easy to use. It’s the ideal way to do your bit for the environment, and for slum and street children in developing countries, whilst living as a student. Here are some ways to get recycling as a student with our initiative.

Declutter your accommodation

Round up your housemates and get rid of your unwanted goods! Whether it’s time for a spring clean or a clear-out to free up some space, it’s always a good time to declutter. After all, a tidy space makes a tidy mind! Decluttering is also said to improve creativity, concentration, and quality of sleep. Decluttering for our cause will not only help the environment and street children, but it will also help your wellbeing.

Run a competition to promote our cause

Running a recycling competition is a great way to get people involved. This could be across accommodation, schools/faculties or even houses if your institution has a house system. The winning group would be the ones that have recycled the most. There’s a competitive streak in all of us, and so this is bound to encourage fellow students to take part! The more students that take part, the more we will be able to make a difference in the developing world. And not only will you be promoting our cause, you’ll be doing your bit for the environment too.

Use Poverty Child as your selected charity during Rag Week

Rag week is the ideal time to use our recycling initiative as one of your fundraisers. You could even combine this idea with the one above. A fundraising event is the ideal way to declutter, bring people together, and promote sustainability all in one! Get in touch with the relevant members of staff or your student council to make it happen.

Use our initiative on special dates

There are many international awareness days that promote similar causes to those that Poverty Child promotes. Our recycling initiative could be used as a way to fundraise on these days. For example, it could be a competition you hold, or a promotion for decluttering and sustainability. Here are some examples of awareness days you could fundraise on:

Use our initiative to promote sustainable living

Our fundraising initiative doesn’t just help children from deprived backgrounds. It can also be used to promote sustainable living. This may be a part of your institution’s goal or mission. Therefore, it helps you strengthen the message and reach your institution’s goal too, as well as ours. Recycling is one element that makes up sustainable living. This makes our recycling initiative the ideal way to practice and promote it.

How to spread the word

Now that you have the fundraising ideas, here are some ideas for promoting them!

  • If you’re a member of a student council, or know somebody that is, use our recycling initiative as a discussion point in a meeting. If you’re looking for fundraising ideas or ways to promote sustainable living, be sure to mention and promote our recycling programme.
  • You could create posters and leaflets to promote your fundraiser. Make sure it’s clear which items we are happy to accept, so your fellow students know what they can donate. Details about these items are below.
  • You could feature your fundraising event on a newsletter, noticeboard, or bulletin. If you don’t have access to edit these, ask a member of staff if they’d be willing to help and put it on for you.
  • Create a visible and accessible collection point for donated items. Make sure it’s clear to see. Don’t forget to give details of the location in your advertisements!

How recycling with Poverty Child works

We’re happy to accept many items from you. These include clothes, jewellery, ink cartridges, and unwanted gadgets. The full range of items we accept can be viewed under the “donate” tab on our website. If your donations weigh over 10kg altogether, you can request a recycling sack from us. Once you’ve fundraised for us, we’ll collect your donations from you, free of charge. If your donations weigh less than 10kg, you can request an address label to post your items to us.

Megan
In Recycling

How to Recycle Gold & Silver Jewellery

Recycling gold, silver and jewellery

We all have gold and silver jewellery hidden away in cupboards, drawers, and boxes that is no longer used. Whether it’s broken or out of fashion, at one time it meant something to us and for that reason it’s hard to part with. Yet, there is still a way of putting your unwanted jewellery to use without the guilt of letting it go. Donating it to Poverty Child.

Our jewellery recycling initiative can give your old jewellery purpose once more. It can raise funds to support our work with vulnerable children living on the streets or in slums. Every gold or silver ring, trinket, or earring can make a difference, no matter how small. A little can indeed go a long way in changing someone’s life.

For example, our recent work in Philippines is only possible thanks to your recycling. Your unwanted items are helping to improve the nutrition of children in the slum of Payatas. Some of the most at-risk children. Learn more about our work with Fairplay, and why working with street children is so important.

Recycling with us couldn’t be easier. We accept all jewellery in any condition, whether silver, gold or bejewelled. All you have to do is request a postage label. Then, use the address label to post your jewellery to us. Our recycling partner raises funds with your donated jewellery. Funds that we use to further our charitable mission.

You can even get your family, friends and work colleagues involved. The more recycling you do the more children we can help.

If you’re having a clear out or a spring clean, send your unwanted gold and silver jewellery to us. Your decluttering can make a huge difference to the children we work with. Children who are otherwise ignored by the wider society.

Megan
In Recycling

How To Recycle Stamps

Since the 1800s, stamp collecting has been one of the most popular hobbies worldwide. If you, or someone you know, have stamps that are no longer wanted or of any use, Poverty Child can now take them off your hands and put them to good use. They’ll go straight towards helping to fund our latest projects, such as our collaboration with Fairplay For All Foundation, in which we are striving to reduce poverty in Payatas, a slum community in the Philippines, by offering support and opportunities to youngsters, particularly through the means of football.

Your unwanted stamps may seem completely unrelated to the children living on the streets and slums across the world. But here at Poverty Child, we’re always looking for innovative and creative ways to fundraise and help those in need. Donating your stamps could be your way of contributing to our mission of helping children to reach their full potential. We can give your stamps purpose once more!

We accept loose single stamps, stamp albums, postcard collections and also first day covers/presentation packs. All you have to do is request a recycling label from us and then use this to post us your stamps. We’ll then convert your stamps into cash to fund our work with street and slum connected children.

Whilst you might not feel as though you have enough stamps from your own home to send to us, why not ask family and friends to donate too? Rally around and get stamps from family members, friends, and colleagues. Or, have a clear out and send us your stamps as a part of your unwanted goods. We’d be happy to accept many items from you that you’re ready to throw away and give them a new purpose. The goods we accept can be viewed via the “donate” tab on our website. Happy recycling and fundraising!

Lucy Darragh
In Programmes

Helping 100 Children At-Risk in Payatas, The Philippines – Mid-Term Update

Street Child with Football

We wrote previously about a project we started with our partner, Fairplay Foundation for All, which set out to help 100 children living in poverty and at-risk in the Payatas slum area, the Philippines. Thanks to kind sponsors and the hard work of our fundraisers, we’ve funded the nutrition aspect of this project: the initiative to provide free healthy and nutritious meals to children after the twice-weekly football sessions.

In our last article we talked about how Fairplay had measured the children against five key performance indicators (KPIs) to use as a baseline to understand how they are suffering and what could be done about it. Six months on, all of these KPIs, aside from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), have been measured again. We’ll give an outline of how these results compare below, as well as some details about what will happen next in the project.

Be sure to check out our previous blog post to see an outline of the project and the baseline results in more detail.

Update on the KPIs

During this second wave of measurements, only 93 out of the 100 children who originally took part in the project were available. This means that the sample size is slightly smaller.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

The mid-term results show that there has been a slight improvement in the physical growth of the children in Payatas. While the average BMI is still classified in the underweight category, it has increased slightly from 18.4 to 18.6. The majority of the children are still also underweight, but this proportion dropped by 7 percentage points, from 68 to 61 percent. Meanwhile, the number of children at a ‘normal’ weight increased from 26 to 29 percent.

This is particularly pleasant news to us here at Poverty Child, as it means that our funding towards providing nutritional assistance to the children has had some effects and has led to improvements in their physical health.

Learned Optimism (LO)

On average, the reported level of optimism and self-esteem amongst the children has remained relatively steady. The average score for self-esteem has stayed at level 5, described as ‘moderately low self-esteem’, while average level of optimism has increased just slightly from -1 to 0, both of which are in the ‘very pessimistic’ category.

There has, however, been positive changes within some of the specific categories. The number of children reporting ‘moderately high self-esteem’ has grown from 23 to 35 percent. At the same, the proportion of those described as ‘very pessimistic’ has fallen from 70 to 54 percent. These results have been offset by changes in other categories, which is why the average scores have stayed very similar. Nevertheless, if the trend continues, it does suggest significant improvements for the most at-risk groups.

Growth Mindset

The mid-term results suggest that the overall mindset of the children has stayed largely stable. The average score in the last round of testing was 36, characterised as a ‘growth mindset with some fixed ideas’, and this has remained the same in the tests this time around. While some of the children have shifted between categories, others have improved only slightly and within their steady category, which is why the overall percentages have remained very similar.

Although there has been no strong improvement in the mindset of the children, we did mention in our last article that baseline results of this test were unusually positive compared to the other KPIs. In addition, the Emotional Quotient (EQ) club which is targeted at promoting social and emotional development was delayed in starting and is due to begin in September. It is understandable, therefore, that the project has seen no specific changes in the children’s mindset so far.

Risk of Depression

The results of the depression test mid-way through the project are alarming. Since the baseline test, the average score among the children has increased from 24, classified as ‘moderately depressed’, to 26, categorised as ‘several depressed’. The proportion of children in the ‘severely depressed’ category has increased too: in the second round of testing, 67 percent of children were categorised as ‘severely depressed’ compared to 45 percent in the first round.

Fairplay has sought to identify reasons why these scores may have increased so much over the last few months and have highlighted the recent political and economic struggles in the Payatas community. The drug war in the Philippines has now become infamous internationally, with recurring incidences of police brutality being reported in Payatas.  Several children taking part in the project have had one or both parents arrested, while others have had family members killed. This has not only had an emotional impact on those affected directly, but also created anxiety and fear in the community as a whole. On top on this, the worsening economy, with high inflation, has created additional financial stresses on already vulnerable families.

It is likely that these deeper issues have threatened the mental well-being of residents in Payatas, as well as the outcomes of the project so far. They suggest the need for extra social and emotional support for the families in the long-term.

What happens next?

The results of the tests mid-way through the project have given a good indication as to how the project is going so far and what can be improved upon in the next six months and beyond. Here are some of the next steps the project will take:

  1. Starting the weekly EQ club in September: Due to difficulties in finding the right person for the role, the Emotional Quotient (EQ) club that was intended to begin in February has been postponed and is now scheduled to start in September. Currently in Payatas, there is a large social divide within the community, where residents who live on different streets and areas have negative views and stereotypes of one another. The EQ club intends to work on this problem by helping the children grow more self-awareness and empathy, before mixing youth from opposite groups together. This is with the aim of reconciling their perceived differences and potentially breaking the social divide in Payatas.
  2. Sport sessions for mothers: Another new initiative is to organise social sport for mothers of attending children, including volleyball sessions, Zumba classes, and similar activities, so that they are able to participate in exercise together. Hopefully, this will build relationships in the community and help gain the trust of parents who sometimes have reservations about sending their children to the centre.
  3. Expand topics covered at the Youth Group sessions: Taking into account the results of the mid-term tests, the Youth Group will seek to include more sessions on topics such as promoting optimism and seeing stress as a challenge rather than a threat. This is with the hope of sustaining improvements in growth mindset, optimism, and lessening the risk of depression.
  4. Further recommendations to come at the end of the project: It is difficult to know how the situation in the community will develop and unfold in the next six months and beyond this. Currently, the economic and political pressures in Payatas are the biggest challenges faced by the project, and the community development team is still learning how to overcome these. The final tests done at the end of the project will indicate the overall effect of the interventions and these outcomes can be used to develop strategies to support the children most at-risk.

To see a final update on these KPIs and how the children are doing at the end of this project, be sure to keep up-to-date with our work.

Lucy Darragh
In Programmes

Helping 100 Children At-Risk in Payatas, The Philippines

Child at-risk in Payatas

In February 2018, our partner Fairplay For All Foundation launched a project we’re co-funding aimed at helping 100 children living in poverty and at-risk in Payatas, The Philippines. The project intends to support these children by providing regular sport, nutrition and social groups that help to improve their quality of life as well as their physical and mental wellbeing. Four main interventions have been developed with the children in mind and form the basis of this project. These are:

  • The organisation of football sessions held two times a week;
  • The provision of free healthy, nutritious meals at the Fairplay Café;
  • Weekly sessions aimed at improving the emotional intelligence of the children;
  • For children aged 13 and above, youth groups teaching life skills held twice a week.

Thanks to kind donations and the hard work of our fundraisers, we’re funding the nutrition aspect of this project. The plan is that free meals will be provided to the children at the Fairplay Café after the twice-weekly football sessions. Since the café specialises in vegetarian, healthy food, it guarantees a much higher standard of nutrition for the children who have poor diets.

For us, nutritional support is an extremely important aspect of the program. Not only is nutrition an important determiner for physical health and growth, but it also has a huge impact on mental health outcomes. Without adequate and healthy food provisions, children may experience stunted growth, difficulties in learning, behavioural problems and emotional issues such as depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder¹.

Before the start of the program, Fairplay gave the children taking part a series of tests to measure them against five key performance indicators or KPIs. These KPIs are body mass index (BMI), adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), learned optimism (LO), growth mindset, and risk of depression. The results of the tests have been used as a baseline to identify how the children are suffering and what can be done about it. They also offer the possibility to determine the overall success of the project, as the children will be tested again both mid-way and at the end of the programme.

We hope to see improvement in these KPIs over the period. The collected data will show whether the work we have done in collaboration with our partner has been beneficial to the children and has increased their quality of life.

A brief outline of the baseline results for the 100 children is given below. You can click through the link on each of the KPIs to find a description of them and why they are important. Be sure to keep up-to-date with our blog to see how the project is going and if there’s been improvements in these KPIs midway and after the programme has ended.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

The baseline results show a large degree of malnourishment among the children and indicate the need for nutritional assistance in the group. The average BMI of the 100 children is 18.4, classified in the underweight category. Furthermore, 52 percent of the male children, and 59 percent of the female children are considered underweight. The most underweight group is 7 to 12 year olds, with the average BMI generally increasing with age.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

ACEs is a tool used to measure the level of childhood trauma an individual has experienced. According to the baseline results, the children supported by this project are highly at-risk. Only 12 of the 100 children said they had not experienced any of the types of childhood trauma listed in the test, while 37 percent had encountered four or more. The most common types of trauma experienced are emotional abuse (59 percent), parental separation/death (52 percent) and physical abuse (42 percent).

Learned Optimism (LO)

LO measures the degree to which people are pessimistic or optimistic about their experiences and what impact this has on them long-term. When this was tested in Payatas, the results showed that, on average, the children are very pessimistic. Around 70 percent of them scored within the ‘very pessimistic’ category and a further 13 percent were rated ‘moderately pessimistic’. Only three percent of the children were deemed to be optimistic. The test also showed that around half of the children reported low self-esteem.

It is worth noting that LO test is relatively complex and therefore, when it was used it Payatas, it was only given to children aged 13 and above (40 out of 100).

Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that basic qualities, such as intelligence, creativity and talent, can develop over time through hard work, dedication and training. It is an extremely valuable mindset for a child to have. On the opposite end of the scale is a fixed mindset. This is the belief that these basic qualities are essentially predetermined, fixed traits and cannot be improved much, if at all.

Fairplay tested whether the children in Payatas have mainly growth or fixed mindsets, finding the results to be overwhelmingly positive compared to the other KPIs.  Overall, 68 percent of the children have a predominately growth mindset, with this being strong in 13 percent. Less than a third of the children have a fixed mindset and none of them strong fixed mindset.

Risk of Depression

Fairplay used the  Center for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression Child (CES-DC) test to measure the likelihood of depression among the children. This involved asking them 20 questions about what they had felt or experienced in the last seven days. The results of the test are alarming as they show that the large majority of the children are at risk of depression. Almost a half of the group (45 percent) scored 25 or above, categorised as being severely depressed, and 41 percent scored between 16 and 24, categorised as moderately depressed. There were no significant difference in results between males and females or between children of different ages. All groups seem to experience similar risks of depression.

In Summary

Overall, the baseline results show that the children supported by our project in Payatas are incredibly at-risk. Not only do they have smaller BMIs than others their age, but they are also suffering mentally due to childhood trauma, risks of depression and low self-esteem and optimism. We hope that through our partnership with Fairplay we will be able to help and assist the children in these and other aspects of their lives. We will keep you up-to-date with our progress here on our blog. Until then!

Sources

  1. Fairplay For All Foundation (2018) Helping 100 Children At-Risk: How Much does Regular Sport, Nutrition, and Social Groups Improve the Well-being of Children in Payatas? Unpublished.
  2. How Poor Nutrition Affects Child Development, Livestrong.com.
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