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Refugee Poverty and the Children of War

It is a commonly accepted fact that war and conflict perpetuate the displacement and mass movements of populations subjected to its violence. The term refugee’s first noted use was in 17th century France to refer to the Huguenots – French protestants who fled to surrounding nations when their religious liberty was threatened with violence – and has been an unfortunate recurrent staple in both academic and media discourses ever since[i].

Despite its common usage, many people often use the terms refugee and migrant interchangeably – a mishap heavily utilised in the UK Brexit campaign in 2016. However, the terms denote two different situations, and it is important to distinguish between the two. Migrants are defined as those who choose to leave their homes; refugees, on the other hand, are forced by the threat of persecution or violence.

Poverty has become a well-known, often long-term outcome of forced displacement. Whether this is historical or contemporary, refugees are forced to deal with hardships in both living standards and social exclusion when fleeing conflict. Despite some states having asylum and social policies for refugees, a growing Western shift towards right-wing social views and the adoption of isolationist national policies on migration have had detrimental effects on the living standards and well-being of refugee populations living in new countries in search of greater stability and welfare. Those most susceptible to these issues are children.

The Issues at a Glance

Poverty is multifaceted by nature and there is a myriad of issues that stem from its base that refugees face, particularly when living in unstable, makeshift refugee camps. Securing necessities such as medicine, fuel, shelter, food, and water is a constant struggle for displaced families, especially given that many of those fleeing conflicts lack the economic funds required to obtain these resources. The issue is only worsened when families are split up or children are orphaned by war – there are over 170,000 unaccompanied and forcibly displaced children worldwide today[ii]. The lack of these necessities further impacts the cognitive and psychological welfare of children which can, and does, stunt both physical and cognitive growth in the long term.

Whilst these are major issues that must be addressed if we are to combat the levels of poverty refugees face, they are (despite their monetary derivative) somewhat controllable amenities. By this, I do not mean that they are readily available – as they are not – and to say so would disregard the hardships refugees face trying to acquire them and their importance for survival. Rather, they are things that can be sought with the right resources. However, as stated, most refugees do not possess the economic or social capital for this. Whilst some may work jobs (which are often poor-paying, insecure 0-hour contracts), many instead become heavily reliant on foreign humanitarian aid – especially those in camps.

Humanitarian organisations such as The Red Cross and Lighthouse Relief, particularly UNICEF for children, send aid packages to refugees worldwide to help address some of the issues they face, primarily in the form of food packages and hygiene toiletries. Children are often the ones to receive a large proportion of this aid which allows them to secure the basic necessities for survival – although this is not always the case.

But, whilst humanitarian aid may offer some relief in certain instances, it struggles to meet the needs of all those who require it and is not an answer for all the issues that poverty presents. Children living in foreign countries often struggle with sociability because of language barriers and a difference in cultural hegemony. In other words, they lack the social skills required to socialise in that specific region as it is often different from what they are used to at home. This in turn means they lack the necessary social interactions required for social growth which only serves to isolate them from the wider society in which they now reside. This can lead to the creation of isolationist diasporic refugee communities that live on the outskirts of their new host country, limiting a child’s capacity for growth.

Palestinian displacement in Lebanon

The civil unrest in Israel-Palestine has left the eastern coastal plain of the Middle East in conflict since the state’s partition in 1948. It has created displacement of refugees on a massively unprecedented scale. A large proportion of those forced from their homes in the West Bank have fled to neighbouring Lebanon. An estimated 300,000 Palestinian refugees are currently living in Lebanon[iii]. Of these 300,000, approximately 93% are living in poverty[iv]. The situation is the same for those in Jordan and Syria.

The Israeli state ‘opposes their return to Israel as it would alter the country’s Jewish character whilst the Lebanese state opposes their implantation in Lebanon’[v] as their practice of largely Sunni Islam is perceived to threaten the already fragile coalition of constituencies governing the country. The result leaves Palestinian refugees in a limbo state, living in camps, struggling to obtain necessities, and existing as outsiders not only to Palestine but to their new hosts too. Living in such ostracising conditions can and does have negative effects on the levels of well-being and esteem experienced by those on the outskirts of society.

When it comes to basic needs, food insecurity is strife amongst the children of these populations with 23.8% of those under 5 being malnourished leading to long-term growth stunting[vi] and a further 25% prevalence of anaemia. Disease is a common issue produced mainly by inadequate housing. Cholera and cardiovascular disease are highly prevalent among Palestinian children because of indoor pollutants, infestation, mould, and dampness in the home – issues impossible to deal with when you are not formally recognised by the state in which you reside.

Many children do not have any form of formal education – an issue largely exacerbated by lacking electricity. In the Lebanon camps, households are only supplied with 2 hours of government-regulated electricity a day meaning children have little else to do but hang around in the alleys between buildings in camps to play and wander, exposing them to dangers of abuse, abduction, and trafficking – an issue that particularly affects young girls.

The conditions in which these children live do not serve to better their position in society since leaving the conflict zones of the West Bank and Gaza. They place them at a disadvantage by removing their opportunities for socialisation with wider social actors which only condemns them to live at arm’s length from their native Lebanese peers, whether that be in school or work or play.

Whilst there is still a great deal to be done, multiple agencies are working to improve the position and livelihoods of young Palestinian refugees. Last year, ANERA helped 1,357 Palestinian refugee graduates in Lebanon get jobs in the vocational sector after leaving one of their multiple schools in the region[vii].  The skills they use not only benefit them immediately but also help the wider refugee community in which they live by injecting money into the area to fund development. Furthermore, future generations will benefit from the skills taught to them by employed young adults. Having a job also lessens the reliance on foreign aid and helps to develop an individual’s cultural capital by exposing them to wider social inclusion through work, which can, in turn, reduce the stigmatisation of refugee populations in host nations.

The biggest humanitarian force in the region is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Established in 1949 following the first Arab-Israeli conflict post-partition, the organisation currently provides education to over 39,000 Palestinian child refugees living in the 12 camps of southern Lebanon – a number which rises to 545,000 students when incorporating those in Jordan, Syria, Turkey and more[viii]. A similar picture is painted about healthcare with 550,000 registered patients each year visiting one of 27 different healthcare clinics in southern Lebanon[ix] helping to combat the issues of disease that too commonly prevent children from living until adulthood. The organisation is currently in the process of reforming its healthcare policy to bring a new holistic family health team approach to better suit the needs of refugee populations.

However, the issue is that the United Nations general assembly has had to continuously renew the UNRWA’s mandate since its establishment in the absence of a solution to the refugee crisis that Palestine’s population has faced for decades now. Whilst it is the case that some have gained valuable skills in education and work, there are still many others who have not and continue to live in poor, unsafe conditions ostracised by wider society. And whilst the work that NGOs do is pivotal to Palestinian society’s survival and upkeep, its efforts are negligible until such a time that a long-lasting peace can be brokered and enforced – something that has had little success thus far.

The Syrian Refugee Crisis

Probably the most well-known example of modern displacement of refugees lies just north of Israel/Palestine. In the 10 years following the start of the Syrian civil conflict in 2011, over half the country’s population have been displaced across 130 countries around the world – 70% of whom are living in poverty producing what the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has called ‘the largest refugee crisis in modern times’[x].

In September last year, UNICEF released a report noting that there are currently 5,900,000 Syrian children living as refugees who need support[xi]. Like the Palestinian populations mentioned above, many Syrian refugees reside in large camps riddled with incidents of poverty. Lacking education, work, poor health, and security are just some of the similarities in issues that Syrian refugees face. What tends to go under the radar most often in the discussion of Syrian displacement is the social and psychological influence that life as a refugee has on the children who flee.

Notions of national pride are cracking under the weight of a refugee crisis that is still very much ongoing. This is particularly true for young men and boys living as refugees from Syria, especially as Syrian nationalism is allied strongly with traditional perceptions of masculinity to fight for the ‘fatherland’[xii] – a somewhat colloquial spin on the commonly used phrase ‘motherland.’ Syrian boys have struggled to adjust their ideas of manhood and masculinity when living as a refugee as their function of masculinity has been challenged by western ideals on changing gender norms[xiii] which has caused a rise in anxiety and depression among young male refugees.

Similarly, living as a refugee, especially for long periods, can, and does, influence and form a child’s perception of both themselves and their country. A recent report found that a group of children who have been displaced and are living in makeshift refuges on the outskirts of Idlib in north-western Syria have been struggling to identify with their cultural heritage after 10 years of conflict has thwarted their sense of home[xiv]. Despite the country’s rich heritage, Syrian children today do not see their war-scarred country as holding any future opportunities for them and most would rather move elsewhere in the hopes of better education, well-being and standard of living. The desired location for most is in Europe.

But the past 10 years have seen Syrians in Europe face xenophobia and hate crime at an alarmingly high rate. Largely a result of Western political and media representations, some young Syrians have been victims of crimes by those native to the host society. In August of 2021, Turkish Nationalists gathered near an enclave of Syrian refugees and began to attack their homes and businesses[xv]. In the UK in 2018, a 15-year-old male Syrian student was attacked by his peers after school whilst a young Syrian girl was pushed in front of a train in North London[xvi]. Many incidents go unreported to the police as they feel they either won’t be believed or fear that cultural and language barriers prevent them from seeking help.

Even applying for asylum can be a long and arduous task. For refugees in the UK to gain access to healthcare, housing, and many other necessities for life, they need to have applied for asylum or pre-settled status – a task that can be complex, especially when those applying are young adults and families with children who do not speak English. And whilst you can still reside in the UK whilst the application pends, you are still not formally recognised by the state as having asylum and as such do not reap the benefits of stuff, often leaving families in poor financial and housing situations. However, various institutions can offer support in this process; Migrant Help UK, Refugee Council and Shelter all have services dedicated to the support of refugees applying for asylum.

Once asylum is granted the benefits for refugee populations can be massive, especially as some refugees (particularly those with children as they are considered most vulnerable) are eligible for the resettlement scheme. In 2022 alone, 1054 Syrian refugees were resettled in the UK[xvii], 52% of the total scheme.

Of course, it is not always as simple as this and many Syrian children travelling alone in particular do not have the means or skills to make it to the UK and thus end up in insecure accommodations or camps across Europe. The bulk of these exist in Turkey, an area recently struck by an immense earthquake, producing further issues for survival as a refugee. The most well-known Syrian refugee camp, however, exists in Calais, northern France.

The ‘Calais Jungle’ represents a severe example of what Syrian children face when living in refugee camps both alone and with their families. Hunger is commonplace with each person being given only one meal a day. Any food kept by those in the camp cannot be stored effectively as there is minimal electricity and infrastructure, leaving food and water to be contaminated by the high levels of pathogenic bacteria present causing vomiting and diarrhoea.

Hygiene is poor with 1 toilet per 75 refugees, more than three times the acceptable standard recommended by the UNHCR. Furthermore, since there are no effective means to wash clothes or bedding there are mass infestations of scabies and lice throughout the camp.

These issues are concerning for children’s physical health, but it is again important to look at how this burden has detrimental impacts on mental health and how the perception of oneself may change in light of how others perceive you – a notion particularly prominent in European media. Refugees are continuously labelled as the scapegoat for issues in Europe by Western media outlets; a representation that impacts on the well-being and self-esteem of refugee children by reaffirming them as a cultural other[xviii]; as different.

Living with this feeling of otherness only serves to worsen the issues of ongoing psychological trauma, anxiety and depression – which are all common mental health concerns that refugee children in the Calais jungle (and other camps) live with. For Syrian children, these stem from both the pre-displacement experiences of war and conflict in Syria; and the post-refugee life experiences resulting from the separation of families, difficulties in the asylum-seeking procedures, social exclusion and more[xix] in their new host nation (France in this instance).

As such, the concerns are not simply for the immediate impacts of these psychological issues but also the long-term damage they can do to a child’s ability to grow, communicate, socialise, and develop. Children suffering from psychological trauma are more likely than the local population to struggle with social anxiety, preventing them from engaging properly at school or sports clubs or in other social settings. These issues can manifest in later life with many refugees practising avoidance in social networks so as not to re-trigger the memories of lived trauma from before.

There is, however, much being done to assist and help Syrian refugees and children in the form of foreign aid. The UNHCR poverty alleviation coalition is the largest actor in the sphere of Syrian humanitarianism. There are currently upward of 6.8 million internally displaced Syrians and external refugees registered with the UNHCR for aid in the form of cash, food and cooking appliances, medicine, and more[xx]. For those living as refugees abroad, the organisation has a programme for protection and inclusion solutions focusing on increasing engagement between young Syrians and their peers in foreign host nations. Last year the commission conducted 19,888 social activities and social awareness sessions aimed at raising awareness for the mental health concerns that couple with the physical aspects of poverty and the lived experiences of trauma, engaging 16,000+ people[xxi]. The organisation runs specialised mental health groups led by psychiatrists and psychotherapists that aim at openly discussing issues to combat the stigma associated with mental health among young boys and men.

Sessions on family and community support aim to direct support towards child refugees, supporting local community centres to help with development in child-friendly settings. In addition to this, child protection committees consisting of social workers, teachers and other professionals work with Syrian children to identify potential protection issues and trends in refugee communities to help address problems before they develop by referring them to WHO (World Health Organisation) medical professionals for support with their mental well-being.

It hopes within the next year to increase its output and step up its involvement in this area, which is particularly important when addressing the mental health concerns stemming from social ostracism that many refugees face. But whilst these movements towards incorporating mental health support are pivotal in the fight against poverty, only 25% of those involved in the programmes offered were male – the largest sufferers of depression and anxiety in the population. There needs to be a focus on engaging more men, especially young men and boys who are most susceptible to trauma and PTSD which can have long-lasting consequences.

Various other organisations operate relief programmes contributing infrastructural support as well as food. SIRF (The Syria International NGO Regional Forum) brings together a multitude of agencies dedicated to assisting in efforts to help Syrian people live in light of the civil war. The agencies provide a range of support from medical care (both psychological and physical) to the provision of supplies necessary for survival (such as food and water) and are pivotal in helping to keep Syrian children in insecure accommodations safe in the ongoing refugee crisis across the Middle East and the rest of the world.

So, while there are a lot of issues that refugees face, there is a great deal of support available for them – whether that’s direct from the United Nations or NGOs. But is it enough? Whilst it is definitive that governments and NGOs need to continue to address the physical and monetary issues that refugees face, there also needs to be an acknowledgement of the long-term social and mental impacts that life as a refugee inflicts. The UNHCR’s programmes on well-being dedicated to supporting children and adults in refugee settings with managing their mental health are a great start but there is only minimal engagement by refugee populations in comparison to the millions spread worldwide. There is much more that can be done to engage large diasporic refugee communities, especially men and young boys concerning mental health support, and until such a time that these well-being needs are addressed fully, we are unlikely to see a change in the levels of social ostracism that refugees face in the world today.

[i] Bakemore, E. (2019, March 15). What does it mean to be a refugee? Retrieved from National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/what-is-a-refugee

[ii] UNHCR. (2023). Every day, children are forced to flee conflict alone. Retrieved from The UN Refugee Agency https://www.unhcr.org/uk/no-child-should-be-left-alone.html

[iii] Perdigon, S. (2015). ‘For Us It Is Otherwise’ – Three Sketches on Making Poverty Sensible in the Palestinian Refugee Camps on Lebanon. Current Anthropology, 56(S11), pp. S88-S96.

[iv] MAP. (2022), Interview: How Palestinian children are bearing the brunt of Lebanon’s economic crisis. Retrieved from Medical Aid for Palestinians https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/1408-interview-how-palestinian-children-are-bearing-the-brunt-of-lebanonas-economic-crisis

[v] Perdigon, S. (2015). ‘For Us It Is Otherwise’ – Three Sketches on Making Poverty Sensible in the Palestinian Refugee Camps on Lebanon. Current Anthropology, 56(S11), pp. S88-S96.

[vi] AbuKishk N, Gilbert H, Seita A, Mukherjee J, Rohloff PJ. (2021) Under-five malnutrition among Palestine refugee children living in camps in Jordan: a mixed-methods study. BMJ Glob Health. Aug;6(8):e005577. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005577. PMID: 34348932; PMCID: PMC8340287.

[vii] ANERA. (2021). What We Do: Education. Retrieved from https://www.anera.org/what-we-do/education/

[viii] UNRWA. (2022). Socio-economic situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon Crisis Monitoring Report – High-Frequency Survey Results – September 2022. Amman: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.

[ix] UNRWA. (2022). Socio-economic situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon Crisis Monitoring Report – High-Frequency Survey Results – September 2022. Amman: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.

[x] ANSA (2021, March 16). UNHCR: 5.5 million Syrian refugees, 70% in poverty. Retrieved from InfoMigrants https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/30887/unhcr-55-million-syrian-refugees-70-in-poverty

[xi] UNICEF. (2022). UNICEF Syria Crisis Humanitarian Situation Report July – September 2022. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund.

[xii] Aldoughli, R. (2017). Syrian nationalism is all about masculinity. Manchester University News. Retrieved from https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/syrian-masculinity/

[xiii] Berg, L. (2021). Masculinity and Syrian Fiction. Bloomsbury Publishing. London.

[xiv] Kivela, L., Tajima-Simpson, M., & Yamin, A. (2021). Anywhere But Syria: How 10 years of conflict left Syria’s displaced children without a sense of home. London: Save the Children.

[xv] Bousaren, D. (2021). A Nationalist Mob In Turkey Attacks Syrian Refugees’ Home And Businesses. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2021/08/24/1030561867/a-nationalist-mob-in-turkey-attacks-syrian-refugees-home-and-businesses

[xvi] Hall, R. Agerholm, H. Dearden, L. (2018). Attack on Syrian schoolboy exposes ‘toxic environment’ faced by refugees in UK. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/syrian-refugee-attack-huddersfield-school-hate-crime-children-asylum-immigration-a8657411.html

[xvii] Home Office. (2022). Immigration Statistics Year Ending September 2022. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-september-2022/how-many-people-do-we-grant-protection-to

[xviii] Said. E. (2003 [1978]). Orientalism. Penguin Modern Classics. Penguin Publishers. London.

[xix] Mental Health Foundation. (2022). Refugees and asylum seekers: statistics. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/statistics/refugees-asylum-seekers-statistics

[xx] UNHCR. (2023). Fact Sheet: Syria – Syrian Arab Republic. The UN Refugee Agency, January 2023. www.unhcr.org

[xxi] UNHCR. (2023). Fact Sheet: Syria – Mental Health and Psychological Support. The UN Refugee Agency, January 2023. www.unhcr.org/sy

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.

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.