Poverty hurts children in crisis-hit Catalonia

Sebastian, a 10-year-old boy with sad, dark eyes, is learning the hard way how to do his sums.

“My mother earns 800 euros a month and they have to pay 500 in rent. They have hardly any money,” he says, at a care centre in Barcelona, capital of the Catalonia region which votes in a snap election on Sunday.

Like many families brought close to poverty by Spain’s economic crisis, Sebastian, his unemployed father, mother who is a care assistant, and three siblings, benefit from free care services such as this free evening learning centre.

“At school you have to pay for outings and everything, and I can’t,” said Sebastian, at a free learning centre for poor children in Barcelona. “I prefer it here because it’s free.”

The public finance crisis, which partly triggered Sunday’s election, is hurting children as much as anyone.

As well as a general rise in poverty, it is choking off funds for schools as well as centres like this, one of 200 run in the region by the charitable federation Fedaia.

Sebastian comes here every evening along with dozens of other children for workshops in activities such as cooking, hairdressing, relaxation or just help with homework, run by specialists and volunteers.

The centre also helps adolescents and young adults.

“In the crisis, families that previously could still meet their payments are now in a precarious situation,” said Sonia Martinez, Fedaia’s director.

The director of the centre where Sebastian goes in northern Barcelona, Raul Lerones, said its public subsidies have fallen by a fifth as Spain’s regions have had their budgets cut in efforts to lower Spain’s deficit.

The cuts are sharpening the effects of the recession that has thrown millions into poverty.

The United Nations children’s fund UNICEF said in a recent report that 2.2 million children in Spain were living in poverty.

“The increase in general poverty is one of the most visible consequences of the crisis,” UNICEF wrote. “The effect on children is especially worrying.”

Lerones said his centre not only had to educate children but even help feed them and their families.

“Previously, afternoon tea for the kids had an educational purpose” as an exercise in socialising. “Now it is a priority for their families,” he said.

“All the kids take afternoon tea and want second helpings and we also prepare portions for their families.”

The European Union’s statistical agency Eurostat ranks Spain among the countries with the highest level of child poverty, just behind Romania and Bulgaria and ahead of Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The number of children younger than 16 in Catalonia living below the poverty line rose from well below the national average at 17.6 percent in 2008, to well above it at 28 percent in 2011.

“There are children who have nervous problems because they do not have a balanced diet,” warned Martinez. “Their nerves do not develop normally and the damage is permanent.”

Spain’s much-cited culture of family solidarity is to thank for sustaining them in the crisis.

“Without that support network, things would be much more violent,” Lerones said.

For Sebastian, the support network extends also to neighbours, such as those who give him a lift home each evening, since his own parents cannot afford petrol.

For this young boy, it is another cruel lesson in home economics.

“We are going to sell our own car because we have to pay the lighting and water bills and everything,” he said with a forlorn look.