All Our Children

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Girl Effect and Save the Children's most recent Swedish campaign.  I meant then to also write about Fryshuset's project/campaign Jag brinner för dig (I burn for you).  You can read more about the project at Fryshuset's page, on the website of one of their social partners and on the initiator's blog. 

The aim of the campaign is to encourage all of us to think and care more about other people's children; all children: 

Your children are my children.  My children are your children.  Together all children are our children.  I promise to see you and act for you.  Through the simple [things] I will and can make a difference for you.

Those simple things can be:

• I say Hi to children around me, and learn their names
• I invite everyone to a meal when my child has friends at home
• I give attention to and praise children around me
• I provide an extra packed lunch when my child has a field day
• I bring a football or a skipping rope outside and play with the children
• I give away those things I don't need by putting up notices in the neighbourhood
• I ask if I can help when I see a child looking sad or lost
• I provide extra mittens, Lucia outfits or Halloween costumes for activities at preschool and school
• I and my child share buckets, shovels and toys when we're outside playing
• I pass on these actions

So pay it forward by doing these things and recommending others to do so too!

The Girl Effect

It's not a new project but this video has just done its rounds on Facebook (again?) and I wanted to share it here.

 


I've also been crying (those new baby hormones...) at Swedish Save the Children's child poverty campaign, Fattigskolan, about poverty in Sweden.  Yes, it does exist.  It's all relative of course so poverty in Sweden is not necessarily about access to clean water and food on the table (although sometimes it could be the latter too of course).

 

Show & Tell: Christmas Presents

Not everyone looks forward to Christmas. The single mother who cannot afford to buy presents. The child who knows his or her parents will drink too much and fight their way through Christmas. The child swimming in presents but gasping for love from distant though present parents.

Read an article by Eva Franchell* on the Nordic Council site that made me reflect for a moment.

Her piece is titled Three images of Sweden just before Christmas 2009.

Rosengård on the outskirts of Malmö - Children living in misery and pure poverty. Cockroaches and mold. Ten people in a two-bedroom flat. 10% of Swedish children are considered poor** - in Rosengård it is 60%***.

Nyfors, Eskilstuna - Young people looking for jobs that are not to be found. 7% unemployment. Young people start their life as adults with a trip to the welfare office. Or resort to crime.

Stureplan, Stockholm - A handbag still costs over 10,000 SEK (920 euros). The international crisis is not to be seen. The shops are expecting record sales also this Christmas.

Eva writes that the market analysts in Stockholm are saying that the crisis is over. But, she continues, for many people around Sweden it has just begun. The share of Swedes on welfare benefits has increased with 20% compared to last year - but most of them do not live in Stockholm, at least not in the centre, instead they live in industrial towns where some companies, usually those supplying other, bigger industries, have had to close or lay off workers. The municipalities have received their share of the national rescue package but often it is only enough to cover the additional welfare benefits expenses.

Eva makes the issue political - and rightly so; politics is about people's different views about people and society - but I'm not going to do that today. I just want to highlight that there are people even in Sweden, both before and after the economic crisis, who are not that well off and could do with some help. And what better time than Christmas to think of a fellow human being. Because I do believe that we're all the same deep down irrespective of where we live, in the rich suburb or on the street. We all have the same needs to eat, sleep and love.

So, buy some presents for your loved ones as you usually do - I will - but for every gift you buy, send a thought to those less fortunate in society and preferably a monetary gift too.

For example, to/through Stadsmissionen:

Or Rädda Barnen:



* Probably most known as the best friend of Anna Lindh, the Swedish Foreign Minister who was murdered in 2003
** This is in an international comparison very low but it doesn't make their plight more bearable.
*** But there is also hope in Rosengård. The now world-famous footballer Zlatan comes from Rosengård. But, as Eva rightly points out, Zlatan is not only a symbol of hope and success despite humble origins; but also of growing inequalities between rich and poor


Show & Tell
I should also say that Nilla is our Show & Tell hostess for December. You can see the rest of her topics in one of the right-hand column.