Cutting poverty by paying even less money...

Zaqi , Aysha & Mahmoud (respectively 8, 6 and 3 years old) share one winter blanket with their mother, Fatma. The older sisters, Zeinab, Sharifa and Amina (aged 13, 16 and 18) share the other winter blanket owned by the family. They sleep on matresses on the floor, huddled together in one room, because of the cold. Social services have promised beds, the family has been waiting for 2 years now, after the previous beds fell apart during the move to yet another flat.

The children are often ill during the winter, so they miss out on a lot of school.
The mother is almost blind (waiting for an operation, which hopefully will save or even improve the little eyesight she has) and suffers from arthritis in her hands and back in spite of her young age.
She has always worked as a cleaner but can no longer do so. She has applied for "nehut klalit" (invalid's pay) but her case has not gone through the system yet. Right now the family survives on 502 NIS (about $ 120) a month "havtahat hahnasa" (social security) and child allowances, another 1500 NIS (another 300 $) a month. Imagine a family with 6 kids living of $520 a month.
The family lives in social housing, but as the mother has not paid the 200 NIS rent for several months nnow, the housing company is threatening to evict them.
That's poverty. True, a few NGO's occasionally donate food, clothing and schoolbooks. But these children do not get medicine when they are ill, the mother cannot afford the not so small fee for 5 days moxypen or whatever else is needed when a child is ill.
These kids NEVER go on schooltrips, as the mother owes money to the schools. She knows it's illegal, to single out her kids, but what can she do?

The government is discussing the means needed for fighting poverty. One of the ideas suggested is reducing child allowances, and providing dinners at school. In a country where one out of every three children lives below the poverty line that's close to criminal:
Many children do not go to school, because of their young age (in Jaffa there is a waiting list for the kindergardens), because they are ill, or because they drop out (the school drop-out rate in Jaffa for Arab students is 49% according to the municipality, 53% according to the Jaffa community).
Dropping out is worst among the poorest. Moreover, until a student is registered as a "real" drop out, usually there is a period of about 2 years of "hidden" dropping out, during which the kid sometimes goes to school, so he or she is still registered. Thus the actual drop-out rates are even higher, MUCH higher. The schools receive money per child, so even when a child hardly ever comes to school (like 14 year old H, who went to school for 2 days this year, or 12 year old O, who has visisted school for 5 days, since September). If indeed, the government will carry out this plan (cutting child allowances and transferring the money to school dinners), the weakest children will be hurt the most.
And ofcourse during the holidays, all children will be hurt, as none actually go to school, but perhaps our brilliant politcians forgot that little detail, alienated as they are from reality.

But the children mentioned above are not the only ones to be hurt by this evil scheme. As a professor ar Ben Gurion University (forgot her name) recently pointed out in a radio interview: When talking about the poor, people often think "big families in the Orthodox Jewish sector and Arab children", but in reality many first children from many families are poor: the young families of young first children are just starting on their way, having many expenses and as yet not a good income. Child allowances for the first child have been cut worse than the rest. This measure will not just hurt very low income families but also many lower middle class families just starting out.

Another, much better, plan is removing the VAT payments from food. Now that WOULD truly help poor families, whose income mostly goes to food. It will really assist them, i hope the plan will be carried through.

Poverty in Israel and elsewhere is foremost a matter of human rights, of social justice. It has been caused first of all by politicians, making decisions that serve the needs of their wealthy friends. It is not "natural", nor does it "just happen". It is the worst form of disicrimination against children.


The children's names have been changed.
Today the family will receive a heater and 2 big winter blankets from an NGO, whom I alerted.