It’s the busiest time of the year for yours truly, and as you can imagine I’m running around like a big fat turkey, looking to escape the hatchet.
As this post goes to press, where most normal folk will have finished work for the festive season, and won’t be back until they’ve had at least a fortnight off to chill with family, I will be hosting a raffle with £1,300 worth of prizes, and then spinning the vinyl for a disco, and serving alcoholic beverages until the wee hours.
Apart from Christmas Eve, I will be working right through, yes even xmas day! 11am until 2pm, if you’re coming out for a pre turkey beer with the family.
That’s what this holiday is all about, family. We’ve been busy all year, doing this and that, and now we get to kick back and enjoy the company of those nearest and dearest to our hearts, and seeing the children’s faces light up with joy at the gifts “Odin” has delivered…
…well…
…for some of us.
No, I’m not whinging about my lot in life. I have a lot to be thankful for, and trust me I am very thankful. I’m talking about those that are far more needy than I.
90,000 children homeless in the UK this xmas. Thats roughly double what it was three years ago, which has led Shelter to release an emergency appeal.
I then spent time looking for some up-to-date figures on the amount of children on ‘protection orders’. The best I could come up with was a study for ‘Action for Children’ using figures for 2010-2011.
In that year, nearly 1.3 million, (1,271,535), cases were referred to social services in the UK. (Note: cases, not children. I am left to assume that some of these cases are families with more than one child). Of this figure, 84% of cases were looked into, and 19% of these were completed, with a total of 50,572 protection orders being put in place to protect children from harm.
The report goes on to say:
There are many more children than this who suffer neglect but whose situation is not recognised. While we are unsure how many children in the UK may be affected, studies suggest that up to 10 per cent of all children (that is, nearly 1.5 million) in the UK have experienced it in some form.
I then looked up figures for disabled children, again as I’m not in the industry of child care, I can’t get hold of up to the minute statistics. The data I did manage to find came from a 2009 report that stated there are 770,000 children under the age of 16, and only 8% of them are receiving any help from their local authority. That is a staggering 708,400 children not getting any help.
#CC4CC (Card Cash For Children’s Charities)
We all have one of those ‘not-so-distant’ relatives, an uncle for example, who give you a card with a small denomination note in it, saying “get yourself something nice!” What do we do? We slip it into our pocket with an appreciative thank you, and then spend it the next morning on regular day-to-day stuff like milk or bread and it’s all forgotten about.
How about we take that 5 or 10 spot, and donate it? You’re not going to miss it, so why not let it do something good for the 3 million children that are currently suffering in the UK.
The current population of the UK is 64.1 million people. Imagine if just 1% donates a fiver through this idea…
£3.2 Million
If 10% gives £5 that’s a whopping £32 Million!
All I’m asking is you give your #CC4CC and share this wonderful idea on all your social media accounts. If we can make this idea trend, (I’m not expecting it to go viral, but that would be amazing), we can help put smiles on so many kids faces. The more people who see it and donate, the more we can help our future generations.
I know a lot of people can’t afford to give away those precious shekels, but you can still share this message, and give children something worth far more than money…
HOPE!
I know a large portion of my readers are from across the pond, and I know you will all want to take part. If you’re unaware of how big a problem it is in the US, take a look at this article, how 2.5 Million children are homeless in America.
According to Raising The Roof, there are roughly 65,000 homeless children in Canada.
Almost 29,000 children under the age of 18 can be found in Australia.
Here are a few links to the donate page of some of the major players in child welfare.
Donate to the Childrens Society
If you would rather give to one of your local children’s charities, simply type “children’s charities,” followed by the name of your area into a search engine, and pick one.
Well, have a great time this Christmas, share the love and joy with everyone and I’ll catch up with you in the hangover between now and new year.
Be dobby, smeck grimly, and skvat jeezny by the sharries droogs!
Dohigh.
Dawn of the Dad 
For all the work & thought put into writing this blog I really hope it does reach out to people & they find a way to support children that are homeless and destitute. The young families living amongst our cities & towns with no permanent shelter, surviving on whatever they have is growing.
Child protection is there as a final order to protect vulnerable children from abuse in whatever form. Children on a child Protection plan will have a group of professionals working as a multi agency team to provide the best outcome for the child & family. They will support, plan & provide assistance to re-educate and rebuild their family, or if the child has been removed; to support foster carers with the difficult task of looking after a child on a temporary basis, with possibly scores of emotional difficulties & more.
However at times it’s only when issues have gotten to the extreme of neglect that support or possible PPO,s are put in place (police protection order). There are
Children the local authority don’t have on their radar, & that’s where all professionals that work in the child care or education sector play their part. We all have a duty of care to safeguard every child we know & see. Children from all walks of life are at risk for so many different reasons, it isn’t only from vulnerable families that neglect their children.
Everyone that can support a charity that helps to stop children suffering neglect must surely be worthy of a donation, however small it all counts.
Does make you look at your own family and think how fortunate we really are. Lovely blog xxx
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Thank you for sharing your insight into this problem. As I say, I am on the outside looking in, and even though the figures are old, they still look awful. I know I’m commited to helping, and if i can get others involved, all the better.
I have just started tweeting the charities that I have linked, in the hope that they will, pick up the batton and run with the idea as well.
Fingers crossed.
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