24/05/2012 00:00
TW
0

Madrid.— “Around 26 percent of minors - 2'200'000 children - live in homes which fall below the poverty line,” a report from Unicef España confirmed.
The relief organisation carried out a study entitled “The impact of the economic crisis on children” which showed that within a space of two years, there were 205'000 more children living in homes where total household income fell below 16'000 euros a year. Unicef España revealed that the number of homes with children where all the adults are unemployed rose by 120 percent between 2007 and 2010. The organisation said that this was clear evidence that the economic crisis is having a greater negative impact on families with children than in those homes where there are none.

Chronic poverty
Unicef's findings showed that in those homes where chronic poverty has set in - suffering three of the past four years below the bread line - the inhabitants, particularly the children are becoming increasingly vulnerable. “Poverty now has the face of a child,” the Director of Unicef España, Paloma Escudero said yesterday. Presenting the study, Escudero warned that quality of life has declined particularly for those children who live in households where adults are having to make cuts in necessities such as food, medical attention and school books and equipment.

Unicef is meanwhile urging the Spanish government to place such children and their families at the core of political decision making. The organisation wants to ensure that these underprivileged collectives don't disappear as “unfortunate victims of the crisis” but rather that social and political will provides them with some hope for the future.

Charity threatened
Following statements yesterday by Catholic charity Caritas that owing to the economic crisis, it is unable to meet the increasing demands placed on its services, Cardinal Rouco Varela the President of Spain's Catholic Synod has criticised the intentions of the national government to tax church buildings. “The money which is being demanded in property tax by local authorities,” said Varela yesterday “could be used to reinforce the dwindling resources of Caritas. If a church is not making money from serving the public, then it should be entitled under law, as are all other non religious, non profit making organisations, to be free from tax.”