Article 26: Governments should provide money or other support to help children from poor families.

Article 27: Children have the right to food, clothing and a safe place to live so they can develop in the best possible way. The government should help families and children who cannot afford this.

As a socialist organisation, these rights for us do not only mean that the government should provide support as a form of charity, but that they should put economic and social policies in place that ensure an equal distribution of wealth in society.

If we look at the data, these rights are far from secured.

• - 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty
• - 22,000 children die each day due to poverty
• - 1 out of 7 children in the richest nations in the world are living in poverty
• - 9% of children in the EU are at risk of poverty
• - Sweden, Finland, Estonia and India are among the few countries which provide free school meals to all pupils in compulsory education, regardless of their ability to pay
• - In high income countries, free school meals are usually available only to children from low-income backgrounds
• - Reduced price meals are provided for students from low income families in France, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States

We demand urgent action to secure these rights for all children worldwide.

If you would like to work on this topic with your children’s groups, we recommend our toolkit from the IFM-SEI Volunteering against Poverty project. In there, you find plenty of educational activities that explore poverty and inequality, and what to do against it.

To get to know different perspectives on poverty from around the world, why don’t watch our own documentary film ‘If you are poor, I am poor’, made by IFM-SEI volunteers and children’s groups.

Do you want to learn more? Check out our other post for 30 Days of Children's Rigts!

1. 1. Kick Off
2. 2. Article 7 & 8