Imagine the following scene: a teacher gives each of his students a piece of paper and asks them to crumple it up; then, once they do that, the man brings a wastebasket to the front of the room, and proposes a game to his class. All of the pupils represent the country’s population, and everyone in the country has a chance to become wealthy and move into the upper class; however, to do so, all they had to do was to throw the crumpled paper into the wastebasket without leaving their seats.

Well, the thing is, the students in the back immediately complained, stating it was unfair that those in the front rows had a much greater chance to succeed; but despite that, they all took their shots, and “” as expected “” most of the students in the front made it, while only a few in the back managed to.

This narrative I’ve read some days ago illustrates exactly what privilege looks like. The closer the pupils were to the wastebasket, the better their chances were; consequently, only those negatively affected by the situation “” the ones in the back “” complained about its unfairness, while those in the front were less likely to be aware of the privilege they were born into, since all they could see was a small distance between them and their goal.

How Much Where You Come from Matters

Theoretically, in the kind of society we live in, anyone can achieve any social position; nevertheless, the weight of social origin is still a determinant factor in a person’s life development, especially when it concerns kids.

Children from poorer families or from less advantageous social positions have lower successful school outcomes and have higher dropout rates, proving that succeeding in life is not only a question of how hard you try, but rather how lucky you were. If you were born in a rich family, attended good schools or were simply born in a developed country, you will not be able to compete on an equal footing with those born in poverty and marginalization.

According to data from Unicef, in 2013 an estimated 59 million children of primary school age were out of school. These children are on the margin of the educational system, where they cannot have access to learning, which is a fundamental tool for both intellectual and social development. Besides, data from child sponsorship NGO Humanitarian states that factors linked to poverty such as unemployment, illness and the illiteracy of parents, multiply the risk of non-schooling and the dropout rate of a child by 2.

Indeed, unprivileged children “” those from disadvantaged backgrounds “” face a much greater amount of unfavorable factors to their education, and consequently to their lives, such as health problems related to malnutrition and psychological traumas. However, it has been proven that inequality has the power to influence even on a child’s brain development.

Editorial credit: thi / Shutterstock.com

Inequality and the Damages and Wounds It Causes Children

According to Robert Putnam, Public Policy professor at Harvard University, poverty and its toxic stress can affect cortisol levels, brain growth, brain waves, and even gray matter; for that reason, children in these situations have trouble concentrating, learning, and following directions in school, having smaller vocabularies and simpler syntax. This all creates a chain of consequences: they do worse on standardized tests, get lower grades, leave school earlier, and have sex earlier. These children have trouble regulating their feelings and can be impulsive or withdrawn.

Poor families are fragile, for they are more likely to be exposed to stressful and fearful situations as a result of factors such as violence and economic insecurity, to housing and food insecurity. As said by professor Putnam, children born within this atmosphere are more likely to be raised by single parents of younger ages, with more children unplanned or conceived with multiple partners, and with more children growing up without the presence of one of their biological parents. These circumstances often lead to fewer parenting skills, fewer resources and supports, more family friction and weaker attachments, poorer school performance, and more behavior problems.

On the other hand, children from families from better social positions have other priorities. They do not need to worry about whether there is going to be anything at all for them to eat the next day, or whether their clothes will be cleaned. Actually, their parents invest in them, spending more on their schooling, and nurturing in them qualities of autonomy, independence, self-direction, self-esteem, and responsibility. Nonetheless, we cannot blame poor parents for not granting their children all these characteristics, for when they find themselves under extreme economic stress, they are unable to be as physically or emotionally present for their children.

Editorial credit: Nattawut Jaroenchai / Shutterstock.com

The Political Part of Inequality, and How to Put a Stake Right Through Its Heart

After all this, we might all be wondering how to alleviate inequality, which is such a harmful aspect of our society, and which we acknowledge is a role of the State to solve. As for this, professor Putnam points out some interesting policies which could increase economic mobility and alleviate stress on poor families.

He suggests, for example, policies that allow parents to stay home after the birth of a child without sacrificing their job, and subsidies and tax credits for early childhood care and education. Moreover, there could be high-touch parenting programs that send a parenting expert into the homes of stressed families to improve child outcomes, in addition to programs that simply inject cash”” $3,000 “” to poor families with infants and toddlers, so to relieve enough stress on parents to improve their children’s chances dramatically.

Although inequality takes time and effort to be ceased, it must never be neglected, but interpreted as a matter of utmost importance to a society based on justice and equality for all. Therefore, we must demand from our politicians effective policies as to giving a decent life to our children, along with adequate conditions for them to develop both intellectually and socially. More than equal opportunities, we should give equal conditions of preparation.

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At seven o’clock on a frosty Wednesday morning I made my way from New York City to the HQ of the World Bank in Washington D.C., to meet Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank and talk about his commitment to end inequality in Early Childhood education. Near the Farragut Square, I found myself at a hub for global change, a financial institution that is working around the clock to free the world from poverty.

Last  month, at  the annual 2016 Spring Conference at the World Bank in Washington D.C, Dr. Kim launched a global movement to ensure all children around the world have equal opportunities to thrive and develop. At this conference of a historical importance,  our founder, Novak Djokovic, sent out  his heartfelt message and urged a global community to recognize importance of investing into early childhood education and development.

The dream of ending poverty and inequality glimmers in  every aspect of President’s Kim philosophy. His  life story, reads as an inspirational memoir. From his first job as a waiter at the Octagon House restaurant in Iowa to becoming the key player in leading the change in international development, one thing Dr. Kim knows for sure is that optimism is a moral choice.

EDITORIAL Credit: Grant Ellis/World Bank

Optimism Is a Moral Choice

Through struggle, soul searching and victory of conquering opportunities, President Kim has dedicated his life to global causes and  the pursuit of excellence. As a global leader who cares deeply about humanity, he revealed that the stories  his parents told him shaped his sense of commitment for the greater good and the many moral choices he would later make in life.

My mother’s grandfather was the first Christian in the family, but for ten, fifteen generations before that, my ancestors were all Confucian scholars, equivalent to today’s PhDs. They were court scholars, working literally in the court of the King. So scholarship was part of her family all along.

My father’s family was not so scholarly, but my grandfather was educated. He was a musician, a violinist. My father escaped from North Korea after the borders closed when he was 19, and he came down to the South to get an education, specifically to become a dentist.

My mother came to the United States when she was 18. As one of the top students in Korea, she received a top scholarship.  She ended up, interestingly, going back to her family roots and getting a PhD in Confucian philosophy. She studied at a place called Union Theological Seminary. It had some of the most prominent intellectuals of that period. She passed on these ideas from the scholars to all her kids when we were very young.

EDITORIAL Credit: Grant Ellis/World Bank

Let’s End Inequality in Early Childhood Education

So when I was eight or nine years old, I was reading and watching televised speeches of the civil rights leaders in the US, for example. My mother used to say, “you have to live your life as if for eternity” “¦ What kind of mother says something like that? It’s almost cruel in some way. But, she’d always say that to us. “¦ I was very impacted, on a very personal level, by the sense that you’re tackling some major fundamental issue that’s eternal. In other words, it’s not something that’s ‘of the moment’, it’s something that’s eternal. That approach has always gotten me the most excited. I was most focused, most able to work for long periods of time,  if I had the sense that I was working for something that was eternal.

So I had these two influences: my father, a dentist, who was incredibly practical, who taught us to work, get a degree. You have to be practical. He used to say to us: ”You’re a Chinaman living in this country, no one’s going to give you anything.”

And there’s a story that I tell, after my first semester coming home from Brown University, when I told my dad that I’m studying politics and philosophy, and he said, “After you finish your residency, you can do whatever you want.” And that’s actually  what I did, — except I first went to medical school and then started a PhD program in anthropology.  I’ve always had both of these elements in me from my mother and father. My father  was right in the sense that it’s one thing to have big ideas about equality and it’s another to take those ideas and make them actually work on the ground.

My parents grew up in the middle of nothing, and the entire country was destroyed. When I was born, Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world, and I think in that sense, one of the reasons why I identified so much with Novak  and Jelena Djokovic  is that they grew up in war, and my parents grew up in war. That’s the situation we came from.

EDITORIAL Credit: Grant Ellis/World Bank

Inequality in Early Childhood Education Starts with Pregnant Women

President’s Kim pursuit of excellence and passion for ending inequality has earned him wide recognition. He was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and was named one of America’s “25 Best Leaders” by  U.S. News & World Report. TIME  magazine proclaimed him among “100 Most Influential People in the World”. Today, President Kim is resolute about ending childhood stunting and welcomes the partnership the World Bank has forged with the Novak Djokovic Foundation.

I’m so excited about Novak and Jelena taking up the issue of early childhood development.

To me, poverty and inequality starts with pregnant women. If we’re not committed to making sure that pregnant women, and children up to the age of five, have everything that they need, then we’re creating fundamentally unfair conditions for those children. Through absolutely no fault of their own, those children happened to be born in environments where they were condemned to not having the same kind of brain structure, literally, as these other kids.

And to have someone like Novak Djokovic , and Jelena, have the two of them, stand up and say, this is what we stand for ““ this is the most fundamental issue around poverty and inequality — that is extremely powerful. I think that if you’re not committed to ending childhood stunting, you’re not really committed to addressing inequality. And so, I’m going to meetings all the time, and I’m saying that Novak Djokovic is committed to ending inequality in early childhood education, what about you?

Join Novak Djokovic Foundation and become a part of the global movement to end inequality in Early Childhood Education. We believe in their dreams. What  about you?

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Education is a wondrous thing. It gives many the opportunity to expand their knowledge and broaden their mindset, in turn improving the outlook of their own futures. Education has the power to move mountains, so to speak, but we often fail to realize that the distribution of education is completely imbalanced, and largely depends on one’s economic and social standing, particularly in western countries like the United States. Thereof, for those who born into poverty-stricken communities, there are significantly less resources and opportunities made available.

How One Fearless Leader Changed the Lives of Hundreds of Students

Linda Cliatt-Wayman, the principal of a low-performing school in North Philadelphia, took it upon herself to make a change in her community and to brighten the outlook of life for many hopeless children. She is the epitome of a leader who not only works for success, but because she genuinely cares about the wellbeing of her students.  There are several aspects integral to developing a strong sense of leadership within a community struggling with crime and poverty, as Cliatt-Wayman discusses in her TED Talk, How to fix a broken school? Lead fearlessly, and love hard.

As the leader, Cliatt-Wayman acknowledges that it is her responsibility to ensure the safety and well being of her students, and she does so full heartedly. A leader who does not believe fully in herself and her team is ill suited for the position. However, Cliatt-Wayman, having experienced the school system from the very same perspective of the students herself, was fully aware of the problems her students faced, and that she would be responsible for fixing them. “I am the principal, and having that title required me to lead”, it is this acceptance of responsibility that molded the incredible leader Cliatt-Wayman would soon become.  

Positive results were seen almost immediately since Cliatt-Wayman came into her position as principal, as Strawberry Mansion was soon removed from the ‘Persistently Dangerous’ list. Her grand accomplishment did nothing to stifle her work ethic, as she continued to work hard to improve conditions around the school.

According to Cliatt-Wayman, the first step towards combatting the problem is acknowledging that there is one. It is an imminent aspect of our human nature to fall prone to creating excuses. Cliatt-Wayman recognizes this, and came to the conclusion that if they wanted to see noticeable results, they would have to first fully accept and take responsibility for the problems their school faced. “Eliminating excuses at every turn became my primary responsibility”, said Cliatt-Wayman. What follows an open acceptance of one’s own flaws is an open-minded pursuit for solutions.

This extraordinary woman credits her success not only to her determination and passion for helping her students, but mainly to the unconditional love she felt as an administrator towards them. And it was love and sympathy with which Cliatt-Wayman was motivated to do the work she did for her students.

This story, although a happy one of success when faced with adversity, brings to the light one of the many flaws with the public education system today. The imbalance of wealth distribution when comparing some Upper East Side private schools to schools such as Strawberry Mansion, which are located in dangerous and poverty-stricken neighbourhoods, becomes easily noticeable. We further have to take into consideration that there are those who succeed amidst the greatest of adversity, and those who fail when handed everything on a platter. It is the will and passion, which sets success apart from failure, but this will is hard to come by when there are no positive role models in one’s life.

Flaws in the Public Education System

In other relevant news, a video has recently surfaced on the Internet, concerning the safety and maltreatment of an elderly high school teacher, who was emotionally and verbally abused by her students. This video has amassed millions of views, and garnered large criticism from around the world. It seems atrocious that a teacher can be so openly abused and threatened in the United States, the nation that is a beacon of democracy and freedom for much of the world.

No child, no matter their race, religion, or economic background, should be discriminated against when it comes to receiving an education. If there is one thing that is crucial in our pursuit of equality and balance in society, it is the acknowledgement that a proper upbringing and exposure to a positive environment is what determines the path of our lives. If a child grows up in a poverty-stricken community, ridden by crime, it is significantly more difficult, if not impossible, for them to succeed in life, especially if they have no positive role models to look up to. It is the work of impeccable leaders of the like of Cliatt-Wayman, which provides such children with the opportunities they were not given.

There comes a time, when we, as a society, must rejoice and reflect on the flaws in our community. It comes with the acknowledgement that the public school system is severely flawed, that we must take up measures to fix it. There’s no reason why in the 21st century, the disparity between the classes is greater than ever. As we progress, so must our social justice laws and movements, to ensure that the efforts of leaders like Cliatt-Wayman do not go unnoticed.

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Children had been servants and apprentices throughout most of human history. They often worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for very little money. They were so useful to companies mostly because their size allowed them to move in small spaces in factories or mines. Kids often worked to help support their families, and were usually forced to forgo an education.

Luckily, nineteenth century brought the change to this. Reformers and labor organizers fought so hard to restrict child labor and improve working conditions, but it took a market crash to finally sway the public opinion.

The minimal role of child labor in the United States today is one of the more remarkable changes in the social and economic life of the nation over the last two centuries, however,   there are still places in the world where children are forced to work so they can support their families.

Did you know these facts  about Child Labour?

• One in six children 5 to 14 years old – 16% of all children in this age group – is involved in child labor in developing countries.
• In the least developed countries, 30% of all children are engaged in child labor.
• Worldwide, 126 million children work in hazardous conditions, often enduring beatings, humiliation and sexual violence by their employers.
• An estimated 1.2 million children – both boys and girls – are trafficked each year into exploitative work in agriculture, mining, factories, armed conflict or commercial sex work.
• The highest proportion of child labourers is in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 26 % of children (49 million) are involved in work.

Read more about this on Friday.  

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Sources:

Facts and History

Did you Know Facts

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Bringing much-needed attention to the ‘Projeta Brasil’ Smartphone application and the legacy of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The transformative social impact of football’s ‘greatest show on earth’ is still being felt to this very day thanks to UNICEF’s ‘It’s in Your Hands to Protect Our Children’ Campaign and the ‘Protect Brazil’ smartphone application aimed to combat the social ills faced by the Brazilian youth.

From the 1960’s onwards football has become a pillar of the Brazilian identity with a 95% of Brazil’s population tuning in to watch the ‘Seleção’ during the World Cup. A further 3.4 million fans from across the globe joined to create a dazzling spectacle of passion, flamboyancy and excitement whilst basking in the delightful South American sun. Browsing the FIFA documents regarding the event it is clear that this World Cup was more digitally interactive than those before, with the official FIFA application recently becoming the biggest sporting events app of all time with a record 28 million downloads. Furthermore, an impressive 451 million Facebook users were reached with official FIFA social content, while FIFA’s Twitter followers surpassed the 16 million mark during the World Cup. Although today’s digital culture receives negative press, as many feel that online platforms have damaged our ability to be truly social, there is no doubt that harnessing this culture for the improvement of society and the protection of others is a fantastic endeavor that should not be ignored or criticized. One such initiative was started during the World Cup in Brazil – ‘Protect Brazil’ (Projeta Brasil) – a smartphone application developed by the Brazilian Human Rights Secretariat with UNICEF, Brazilian civil society organizations such as Cedeca-Bahia, and ICSS Save the Dream, and the pro-bono software company IlhaSoft.

As the world’s seventh wealthiest economy, the Brazilian Government has struggled to create a society conducive to stable youth development. 40% of the 60 million under-18’s live in poverty; a statistic that cannot be ignored. Living in a state of anguish and motivated by sheer desperation, many children find themselves working in factories and are exploited for the sex trade. As the demand on the Brazilian economy increased in light of the forthcoming World Cup, Brazilian government officials expressed their fears of increased child prostitution and other forms of exploitation. Already at full capacity, in 2013, the Brazilian hotline 100, managed by the Brazilian Federal Government, received more than 250,000 complaints of violence against children, 29 cases per hour. Of these cases the main types of violence reported were negligence (36%), psychological violence (25%), physical violence (21%) and sexual violence (13%). Furthermore, although Brazilian federal law prohibits children younger than 16 from working, there are approximately 3 million boys and girls, aged 10 to 17, who are victims of child labor. Thus, as part of the effort to protect young Brazilians from the potentially negative impacts that a World Cup could have brought to their lives, the ‘Protect Brazil’ application was developed.

Gary Stahl, UNICEF’s representative in Brazil, has boasted proudly:

Did you know that Brazil is the first country in the world to provide an application that enables anyone with a smartphone to report abuse?

Launched in May 2014 and operating at least to the end of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, ‘Protect Brazil” enables anyone with a few pushes of buttons, swipes and taps to report an incident of violence, abuse or exploitation of children. The application is linked online to the closest police stations, children’s charities and other emergency services that could be required. The development of interactively responsive infrastructure across the major Brazilian cities has the potential to be used as a template for expansion into other countries.

I understand that discussions are ongoing with Costa Rica, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Iran. Indeed, the ICSS Save the Dream executive director, Massimiliano Montanari, envisages the application being used in Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022. In an interview 1 week before the World Cup Final, Casmira Benge of UNICEF Brazil commented that, “So far the app has been downloaded over 30,000 times” and “more than 3,800 calls have been made through the app by ordinary people, which is good because it shows that everyone is involved in protecting children, though the number of calls show that too many violations occur.” Furthermore, by the end of the World Cup the ‘Protect Brazil’ app had more than 40,000 downloads. Most cases of violence or discrimination against children were not reported due to fear, insecurity or simply a lack of information. The app takes the burden of reporting an incident  off the children who are often psychologically frail, physically degraded and tormented by the unfortunate toils of their daily lives, and places the power into our hands to protect their future, allowing them to fully develop their potential.

The app is a part of a wider UNICEF campaign, ‘It’s in Your Hands to Protect Our Children’ aiming to raise awareness among the Brazilian public and foreign visitors about the vulnerable state of the majority of the Brazilian youth. The importance of knowledge-sharing by distributing educational outreach materials to hotels, bars, airports, taxis, and buses in the 12 host cities cannot be understated. On a wider scale, UNICEF’s global initiative #ENDViolence is a three-year campaign aiming to spread awareness of protecting the most vulnerable segments of a country’s population. Whether we like it or not, we are quickly becoming ‘digitalized’ people, often glued to our laptop or smartphone and this app is able to ride the wave of technological advancements to produce something truly noteworthy and life-changing for today’s youth in Brazil, and perhaps in the future, across the globe.

For more information about Proteja Brasil, visit  www.protejabrasil.com.br. The application can be downloaded from Google Play and the Apple Store and is available in three languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese.

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• 40% of Brazil’s 60 Million under 18 year-olds live in poverty.
• The app’s interface shows a clear list of violence types that anybody with a smartphone can report in an instant.
• Change is needed and online platforms using the newest technology is an innovative solution.

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The UK is not the place you would automatically associate with child poverty. It is a developed country with, what from the outside looks like, an enviable system: the NHS and its free health care, free education for all and a safety net with benefits for those most vulnerable in society. We are used to being faced with dramatic images of children in poverty from fundraising campaigns to help those in far off developing countries; but to see those living in cold and damp conditions without the means to buy the necessary nutrients for good health and development, on our own doorstep? Something has gone drastically wrong.

The number of families and their children living in poverty is on the increase and the reasons are complex.  There is also a very different mindset as to how us Brits view poverty at home and abroad. It is far easier to see those in poverty in developing countries as victims of circumstance: famine, natural disasters or political turmoil, than to see those in poverty at home. Immediately, we regard the poor in a country of comparative wealth as lazy, work-shy and instrumental in their own situation. But as the recent Save the Children report shows, nothing could be further from the truth and one of the most dramatic truths to come out of the report shows that “work is no longer a route out of poverty, with two thirds of all poor children coming from working households”.

Children really suffer from poverty as their parents’ financial strains creak under the costs of nutrition, clothing, adequate housing and provisions for their educational and emotional development. All the while as the costs have increased on the family unit, one parent is usually then removed from their potential earnings due to child care which is rocketing in cost year on year (nursery places for children under 2 have soared 77% in the last decade).

Whilst the UK had made good progress in reducing the number of children living in poverty between 1996 and 2005 by getting parents back to work and introducing services such as Sure Start to enhance early experiences and support families and through social security benefits; this trend has reversed. Whilst the UK government had committed to reducing the number of children living in disadvantage through the Child Poverty Act, not only are these targets not going to be met, but the situation is getting worse.

It is true that the global financial situation has had a part to play but the situation was deteriorating even before it hit in 2008. The biggest change is that most of those living in poverty have parents in work. As unemployment has fallen, poverty has increased; a truly bemusing statistic. Projections for the recovery are not faring any better with The Institute of Fiscal Studies predicting a one third rise in child poverty by 2020. Translated into numbers this means:

• 150,000 more children living in a cold home in addition to the 1.6 million already in one.
• 90,000 more not getting enough fruit and vegetables along with the 2.7 million going without basics such as sufficient nutrition
• Another 23,000 young people a year in England not achieving good GCSEs because of the impact of poverty on a child’s start in life and in their prospects for educational attainment. Source

In addition to work no longer providing a route out of poverty, the situation has become compounded by a social safety net which is no longer fit for purpose and no longer sufficient as well as rising living costs especially for the basics of food, heating and housing.

Save the Children wants to help provide a fair start for all children in life in order that their future need not be dependent on a lottery of birth. Every family should have access to high quality and affordable childcare. Every family with children under five should have a minimum income guarantee and every child should be able to read well by the age of 11. Surely these are not too much to ask? Not only will these measures improve the immediate surroundings of children in poverty today but they will prevent poverty becoming endemic and entrenched across generations. The time is now to prevent this from happening and early intervention is the key for children to get the right start in life.

Governments should be demonstrating a commitment to this at the highest level but we all have a responsibility and there is much that we as individuals can do to help. From supporting food banks to donating old books, clothes and toys, there will always be somebody grateful for the resources that they just can’t buy new.

Is it the same in your country? What are your experiences of rising costs and decreasing wages? How do you bridge the gap? We would love to hear your practical coping tips.

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