Long-time Australian sponsor Alison Pippard knows a thing or two about the importance of education for vulnerable children in rural communities.
The Australian mother of two has been a teacher for 36 years – mostly in rural settings, including at a school for children from low-socioeconomic backgrounds. She is currently a teaching principal at a small school in Young, a rural town south west of Sydney where she grew up.
Education gives children the skills and tools to change their lives
Education, says Alison, is “absolutely critical” for children, especially children from disadvantaged backgrounds, because it can give them the skills and tools to change their lives.
“By educating children they have a greater capacity to ask questions, to think about their choices, and to make informed decisions,” Alison says.
“If children are educated and they’re literate and numerate in their own language it creates more opportunities for them.
“We want children to be informed, we want them to be educated so not only can they get jobs where they can earn more money and make their lives more sustainable, but also to be able to make good choices that are going to help themselves, their families and their countries.”
Because of child sponsorship, families don’t have to choose between food and education
Alison has been sponsoring children through ChildFund for 27 years, since 1993. She currently supports five children, whom she corresponds with through ChildFund’s sponsorship program. She says organisations like ChildFund are important to helping ensure children in developing communities have access to an education and can finish school.
Infectious diseases
like COVID-19 can have a detrimental and long-term impact on children in the
countries where ChildFund works, communities that are already vulnerable
because of poverty.
The COVID-19 pandemic is
not only threatening the physical health and wellbeing of children and
families, but the hard-fought development advances of the past 20 years. There
is a real risk that many communities will back-slide into extreme poverty.
Below we detail why children and families living in poverty need your help more than ever.
1. Children and families living in poverty are less able to absorb the shocks caused by the global response to
COVID-19.
Most of us are experiencing the ripple effects of COVID-19 long before we know someone who gets the virus. For children and their families living in poverty, those ripple effects can be devastating and last a lifetime.
Many low-income jobs involve a lot more interaction with the
public and a lot less stability. Parents working in a local market selling
goods, for example, are at a higher risk of being exposed to the virus. If the
market closes to encourage social distancing, they lose their source of income and,
without unemployment benefits, will no longer be able to provide for their children.
A worsening economic situation for families already living in poverty can lead to increases in child labour, child marriage and other child protection issues. The psychological stress on many families is enormous, with many parents losing work and facing an uncertain future. Sadly, this has been accompanied by an increase in domestic violence, with children both experiencing or witnessing abuse in their homes.
