This document presents the findings of the 4th study by the Vulnerability Observatory of the Red Cross in Catalonia regarding the impact of the economic crisis on childhood and the school environment. Key findings include: - Over 60,000 children in Catalonia received basic assistance from the Red Cross in 2012, with 1 in 3 aid recipients being a child. - Many families struggle to afford school expenses like books, materials, and lunches. Public aid for education has been reduced. - Three-quarters of children surveyed live in homes where all adults are unemployed with no official income. 18% lack adequate supplies. - Lack of school materials negatively impacts children's academic performance and self-esteem according to most families

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Observatori de
Vulnerabilitat de
la Creu Roja a
Catalunya
4th study
Impact of the crisis
on childhood and the
school environment January 2013
.......................................................................................................................................................................

2. Edition:
Red Cross in Catalonia
C. Joan d’Àustria, 120-124
08018 Barcelona
Date: March 2013
Edition and Translation: Òscar Velasco, Irene Peiró, Patty Ortin, Ricard
Maudsley Irina González, Laia Muns, Sandra Solorzano and Lidia López.
Editorial Team: Pilar Millán and Anna Sabaté.
Photography and Graphic Team: Vidal Sabater and Raul Camañas
Design, layout and print: Gràfiques APR
© Creu Roja, 2013
The partial or total reproduction of this publication is not allowed, nor its treatment with
computer, nor its transmission of any kind or by any way (by computer, mechanic transmission,
by photocopy or any other means), its renting, loaning, or any other way of usage of the unit
without the previous written authorization of the Copyright holders.

3. 1. Presentation
We are pleased to present the 4th study carried out by
the Vulnerability Observatory, a project that started in
2011 with the aim of identifying the needs of people at-
tended by the Red Cross in Catalonia in its programmes
to combat poverty, and to adapt our humanitarian aid
to their requirements. The other objective was to create
an area for debate and a plan of action in line with those
of other social agents, in order to implement our Humani-
tarian Diplomacy strategy. Those two challenges have been
achieved a year and a half later.
The Red Cross has created this study using the results of a survey that measured the aid that was given
to families in one specific area – the programme to encourage children of school age to return to school,
carried out by the Red Cross between August and October 2012 after the completion of the 1st study by
the Vulnerability Observatory, which analysed the impact of the current economic crisis on children and
the family.
In this project, the Red Cross has cooperated closely with the education community. The school is the
first environment that can detect the deficiencies that children may have. Thanks to the contributions from
teachers, social services, government offices and social entities, school has become a place where chil-
dren’s situations of vulnerability can be minimized.
Childhood is the age group analysed in this study, because currently 26.4% of children are considered
to live in conditions of poverty. These children have the universal right to education; they are entitled to
receive this education in conditions of equality and dignity. They must be able to go to school with the
sole concern of studying and sharing experiences with their colleagues. It is vital that the future of these
children should not suffer from the deficiencies of their present situation.
The fight against social exclusion, especially in childhood, has to be a priority and a responsibility for all
social agents: the government, social bodies, the education community, families and society in general.
Together we can create an equal society, which guarantees equal opportunities to everyone in times of
difficulty. The Red Cross in Catalonia hopes this study will draw attention to the problems currently facing
many children and will contribute to the efforts to improve their quality of life.
Josep Marquès i Baró
President of the Red Cross in Catalonia

4. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
2. INTRODUCTION
2.1 Profile of the families of the 1st Study
For this study, the Red Cross has used the results Didn’t have a pair of proper shoes
1 out of 3 children
from the Vulnerability Studies and from the Fight
against Poverty projects.
The results showed that the average income of the
people who were being helped by the Red Cross was Didn’t have proper books
550 euros a month. They also showed that 93.7% of 1 out of 3 children
the users suffered relative poverty, which means they
lived with less than 700 euros every month. 91.7%
lived in high poverty, that is, with less than 646 eu-
ros monthly. 85.2% were living in conditions of very Didn’t possess material for outdoor leisure, like bikes, skates…
high poverty, which is less than 566 euros. More than 5 out of 10 children
55% of people suffered material deprivation: that is,
they couldn’t afford holidays or meals that contained
meat, they were unable to keep their houses warm
and they couldn’t afford an unforeseen expenditure
Didn’t practice any leisure activity
of 600 euros. 6 out of 10 children
Eighty per cent of respondents had children who
were suffering because of the vulnerable situations
of their families
Received help to afford the lunch service in school
3 out of 10 children
Families who needed school lunch service but couldn’t afford it
1 out of 4 children
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5. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
2.2 Projects of the Red Cross to help children
The Red Cross has launched a series of new projects designed to help vulnerable families cover the costs of
their children’s schooling.
Aid for children returning to school Number of children attended
To buy books or reuse books and school material
971 grants Aid for children returning to school 3,138
To buy clothes and sport shoes
2,760
Kits of social support 22,606
Basic products for children's
Grants for summer camp nutrition and hygiene (2012).
71*
30% of all the people
3,138 2,073 attended in these
two projects
children in the programme families attended were children
(*) Because of the timing of the project, the number of aid is inferior
Nutrition program 36,807
Manegement of the
distributed food by
the European Union (2012)
336/506
Project of child nutrition
336 grants, in Janurary 2013,
of the 506 covered in the initial
objective of the project.
Toy Campaign 17,604
The Red Cross in Catalonia
attended with these projects
80,523 children
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6. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
2.3 Description of the study
A group of 737 people answered the survey, which allowed the Red Cross to compile the results listed be-
low. All respondents had benefited from the Red Cross project to help families with the school expenses.
In all, 1,762 people received this type of aid. The survey focused on the way families paid for food, books
and other school materials, and aimed to identify the basic needs that they could not afford.
3. RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
3.1 Profile of the families who received help
The charts below show the number of people that asked the Red Cross for help. These percentages may
not be representative of the whole population of Catalonia.
Profile of the person Profile of the family
Sex Mean age
Woman 71.5% From 36 to 43%
45 years old
Mean age
37 years old Children in school ag
e
43% 2 or more children 63.1%
41.8% of them
are large families
Spanish
Nationality 49.1% 41.8%
48.7% 11%
Families with income below 550 euros a month Families with no income at all
One of the requirements for families to access the aid was to have a monthly wage equal or inferior to the one established by the
(1)
Public Indicator of Income of Multiple Effects (IPREM): 532.51 euros per month, plus 125 euros by each son/daughter. If the mean
profile of families has 2 or more children - can benefit from the helps with a wage equal or inferior to 750 euros - and 48.7% of the
families that have received the help have inferior wage to 550 euros per month, we can conclude that the greater part of beneficiaries
is very underneath of this threshold.
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7. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
In more than 75% of the families all adult members
Origin of the family income
are unemployed; one in 10 has no income.
Multiple choice
Wage
Food Unemployment The children attended by the Red Cross live in
24.2%
allowance 23.1% Minimum
* poverty and 63% live below the breadline. Thirteen
21.8% wage
21.0% per cent live in homes without income.
Informal
income Has no
13.0% income
at all
Help from
families 11.0%
and
friends
7.3%
*Food allowance for children
3.2 Cost of the children’s school
Families have to take care of the following expenses: Most respondents have two or more children and their
income is lower than 550 euros a month. In all, the
Books and school materials school materials for each child costs 339 euros, so a
family with two children must pay 678 euros – that is,
178 euros more than what they earn in a month.
Books and school material are the Cost of the children
main expense for families when their returning to school
children return to school
Two childrenExcess cost
10.3% 1.5% 678€ -178€
doesn't assign no reply Monthly
any money income
26.2% +33%
assigns more 550€
than 300 euros€
One child
339€
Books
215€
23.3% 38.7%
assings from from 100 School
1 to 100€ to 300€ material
124€
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8. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
Expenses in school lunch service Cost of outdoor clothes Doesn't pay the expense of the AMPA*
50%
38% 27% 33.8% 1.1%
can't afford it doesn't have doesn't no reply
Doesn't pay for extra activities
any expense* assign any
in school
money
6%
52%
assigns more
than 300€ a
month Has no expenses on after
school activities
79%
Has no expenses on transport
86%
Doesn't pay for any classes
after school
35%
assigns 100€ 94%
euros a month 33.6% 25.5%
destina de assigns * School Parents Association
* This doesn't mean that they don't have 1 a 100€ from 100 to
this service, because this expense can be 300€
covered by a different type of aid
(scholarships, family allowances, helps of
the entities...).
3.3 Program of aid to children for the school year 2012-2013
A group of 66% of respondents received help from the Red Cross for the first time thanks to this program.
The rest of the families were already receiving help from the Red Cross in the form of food parcels.
Distribution of aid Evaluation of the aid
Percentage of the families who received aid Considers the help to Considers it
be good or very good to be insufficient
88.2% 94.3% 53.7%
Sports clothes
35.3% Books and 93.9% 40%
school material
2.3% Aid for 88.2% 35.3%
summer camp
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9. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
3.4 ther grants; weaknesses identified and impact on the
O
families
3.4.1 Other helps for school
Other helps for school Relation between public grants and the
reduction of the help
Apart from the aid received by the Red Cross
Half of the people who received help has stopped receiving it this
year or has received less than the year before
Receives
less help
... 2 out of 4 families 38.2%
have received help apart from the one given
by the Red Cross
Grant provider
Multiple choice
Receives
Public grants 34.4% the same help
but less money
Friends and family 24.5% Has stopped 10.2%
receiving
Other entities or NGO, help
9.7%
different from the Red Cross 2.4%
School 8.8%
34.4% of families receive public aid to cover the cost of school for their children but the help they receive
is less than last year
3.4.2 Needs that haven’t been covered
77.7% Needs not covered
of the respondents cannot cover
all the necessities of their
children's school School lunch service 37.9%
AMPA*'s expense 32.6%
Cost of the lunchbox 8.0%
Extra activities 50.4%
After school activities 43.3%
School transport 8.4%
School review 16.1%
School material 59.9%
22.3%
could afford them Clothes 26.7%
No reply 1.2%
* School Parents Association
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10. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
Does the lack of school material affect
the children's academic results?
Does not affect in any way
10.9%
Yes, it impacts the academic results
76.6%
Yes, it impacts his or her self-esteem
77.1%
3.4.3 Families’ evaluations
The families who answered the survey had to score the help they received on a Likert scale of 1 to 5,
with a maximum score of 5. The charts below show the percentage of the families who gave scores of
5 for the help they received according to type of need:
78%
64% 61.1%
56%
45.6%
40.8%
20.8%
Books and Aid for Lunch Extra Academic Aid for School
school school service activities help meals before transport
material clothes and after lunch
The aid for school meals is one of the main priori-
Do you have economic difficulties
ties for many families. to cover any of these expenses for
your children?
Thirty-eight per cent of the families cannot afford Multiple choice
the school lunch service. Of these, 79% cannot Yes healthy food
guarantee healthy nutrition for their children. 70.3%
Yes, for some medication
32.8%
Yes, for oral and optical treatments
70.3%
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11. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
4. CONCLUSIONS
Child Poverty
Childhood is the group with the highest percentage of poverty in Catalonia. Results published by Idescat
(Statistics Institute of Catalonia) in December 2012 show that 26.4% of catalan children live below the
breadline, compared with 19.1% in Spain as a whole.
In all, 214,869 people received food and basic necessities in 2012 from the Red Cross. Over a quarter -
28.63% - of them were children, that means 61,505 children in over Catalonia. If 1 out of 4 children is poor
in the community, 1 out of 3 people that receive basic help from the Red Cross is a child.
The results from the fourth study of the Observatory of Vulnerability show that 55% of the children whose
families answered the survey live in conditions of material deprivation and 75% live at homes where all of
the adult members are unemployed, and no longer have any official income. One out of every 6 children
lives in a situation of real poverty, and 20% of them live in homes that have no income at all or that need
help from friends and family. In the best of cases, some families depend on incomes that are insufficient
and temporary. This creates situations of real precarity.
Eighteen per cent of the children attended by the Red Cross live in homes below the minimum standards
and lack adequate supplies. By its direct action, the Red Cross comes into contact with families with chil-
dren who live under the threat of eviction for not paying their rent, or who live illegally in squats (although
the Red Cross does not have reliable statistics on the number of people living in this situation).
Impact
The role of the school is, among other things, to promote social equality. Unfortunately, the current
economic crisis makes it particularly difficult to carry out this function.
Many families find it very hard to take care of the school expenses and many others are completely un-
able to pay them. This situation is on the increase and those who are affected state that the help they
receive (from their families or institutions) is not enough. The lack of resources of these families has
a double impact on the education of their children. First, the academic results may be disappointing;
second, their self-esteem may be damaged.
The study reveals that 77% of the children who are seen by the Red Cross started the school year
without the material needed (for example, textbooks and proper clothes). It also reveals other worrying
deficiencies, such as nutrition. The study states that school has become the only guarantee for many
families that their children have an appropriate meal with the dining service. Most of them cannot pro-
vide a healthy lunch for their children.
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12. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
The study also reveals that the mental and physical health of the child can also be impaired by the social and
economic difficulties of their families. The personal relationships that these children have established can be
damaged because they are no longer able to do the activities that other children can do. In conclusion, the
study indicates that the impact of the economic crisis in the academic environment may have consequences
in the middle and long term for the child’s formal and personal development.
Help available
The current aid available does not cover the most basic needs for the children, or at best only partially. Help
from families, friends and the social setting has become crucial to guarantee the children’s needs, because of
the lack of public help.
Schools and social entities try their best to minimize the impact of the economic crisis on vulnerable families.
But their activity is also badly affected by the economic difficulties of the current context.
The increasing demand for aid for meals proves the insufficiency of the public help. The majority of this aid
covers 50% of the cost of the meals; but there are many families that cannot take care of the other 50% of the
payment, so they have not applied for it this year.
Thirty-eight percent of the people that answered the survey need their children to use the dining service in
school, but they are unable to afford it.
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13. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
5. ACTIONS OF THE RED CROSS
In order to reduce the impact of the economic crisis on the children in vulnerable situations and also to
help them with their academic development, the Red Cross has organized the following programmes:
E
mergency programme for children’s alimentation
In November 2012, the Red Cross started this programme to provide financial help for families all around
Catalonia who cannot pay for the school’s dining service expenses. Today, 288 children in vulnerable
situations receive this economic support from the Red Cross in Catalonia.
The first study made by the Red Cross’s Observatory of Vulnerability was carried out in July 2011 and it
analysed the impact of the economic crisis on the children. In that year, the Red Cross demonstrated that
1 out of every 4 families in vulnerable situations could not afford school meals for their children. This result
was one of the reasons why the Red Cross decided to implement this project in 2012. Compared with
2011, the proportion of children who needed help to pay for school meals has risen by 38%.
The Red Cross invested 125,000 euros obtained from The Marathon for the poverty of TV3 (a program
broacasted by the Television of Catalonia with the aim of collecting funds for the fight against poverty
projects of the social entities of Catalonia) on this project. Even so, since the beginning of the project, the
Red Cross has been trying to obtain other sources of income, to help more children. For example, in the
last couple of months of 2012, the Red Cross linked a campaign to recruit new members to this project,
and devoted part of the registration fees of those members to financing the dining school service for many
children. Other companies, like Caprabo, have made economic contributions to this project by selling
charity bracelets for 1 euro.
Projects to children in vulnerable situations
In September 2012, for the first time, the Red Cross implemented this project to distribute certain goods
(such as clothes, books or school material) to families in vulnerable situations. The organization distributed
180,000 euros to 3,138 catalan children, with the support of the Catalan government’s Department for
Social Welfare and the Family. The Red Cross offered this aid in the form of tickets that the families can
use in certain clothing shops, libraries and other places.
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14. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
Support for the Families: new ways to provide attention
In the last term of 2012, the Red Cross started installing Points of Support for the Families (PSF) all around
Catalonia. The intention is to attend to the needs of people in vulnerable situations that seek help and
to assign them programs that satisfy their needs. This information point also has the aim of providing
guidance for children. This type of support has changed completely the institution’s previous model of
attention to the public.
The PSF will help to implement other projects, such as the distribution of food, and it will create new pro-
jects and encourage teamwork. All these establishments will offer hosting service and maps of the sources
available for every family. Some of the PSF will also have centres to help organize the families’ time or
economy. The Red Cross is trying to recruit families that want to volunteer helping others in these places.
Project of academic success
This project is aimed at 6 to 16 year old children at risk of social exclusion, who are entering the obligatory
school system. The objective is to provide these children with resources that allow them to develop their
own autonomy and help them to make the right choices, applying a critical perspective. The project also
encourages children to develop leisure activities that promote education outside the academic environ-
ment. It also helps to cover the basic urgent needs of the youth throughout the country.
The project focuses on revision classes, support for children, the covering of their basic needs (meals,
school material, and so on), leisure activities, and the child’s environment (parents and educators). This will
help the child to develop educational skills.
The project Support for Families is the ideal environment for the academic success project. The two pro-
jects share the same goals. The desire is to implement Support for Families throughout Catalonia in the
first semester of 2013.
Red Cross Youth Project: Social Mediation Centres (CMS), playrooms and summer
recreation
The Red Cross Youth also manages many other projects to cover the education and the leisure needs of
children in vulnerable situations. Among them are the Social Mediation Centre (CMS), where children at
risk can do their homework and other activities after school, under the supervision of the staff. In 2012,
540 children joined these centres around Catalonia. The organization has also set up playrooms, and
every summer it organizes recreation spaces for the families that cannot afford these types of activity for
their children. Last summer, over 800 children joined these recreation places.
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15. IV STUDY OF THE OBSERVATORY
Distribution of food and basic necessities
The Red Cross runs two main projects to distribute food and hygienic products: the European Union Nu-
trition programme and the distribution of social support kits of basic products. The Nutrition programme
reached 151,172 people during 2012, 36,807 of whom were children (24.35%). The social support kits
were distributed to 63,697 users, 24,718 of whom were children (38.81%). In total, with these two pro-
grammes, the humanitarian institution distributed food and basic necessities to 214,869 people, 61,525
(28.63%) of whom were children.
Toy campaign
Every Christmas, the Red Cross Youth holds an annual campaign to collect toys, which will be distributed
to children in vulnerable situations. This year, 21,832 children benefited from this campaign – twice as
many as four years ago.
If you want to know more about this study, you can access the video of the Red Cross in Catalonia of the im-
pact of the crisis on childhood and the school environment through the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agpf7tcyq1c
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