#EndBedPoverty
This petition was featured on BBC breakfast 26 January 2022. Link https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/604509?fbclid=IwAR3to-O-pYrih2zIRSTtBKGymdFGuQ6Tz8ebghfrBCK_n4dK8RgvZpXp_y8
“A teacher in 2018 started a bed poverty charity, since then schools have referred 1400 children without beds. Bed poverty is affecting educational outcomes for children across the UK. A national sleep strategy must resource local authorities to identify, address and ultimately end bed poverty”
Last year Bex applied to the charity commission to change Zarach’s constitutional charitable objective from the jurisdiction of ‘Leeds’ to ‘UK’. It was (quite rightly) rejected. They said Zarach didn’t have the structures or means to be able to tackle bed poverty UK wide. On reflection this was true. After lots of back and forth, it was changed to ‘Leeds and surrounding areas’ with the promise it could reapplied for should circumstances change. Through this discussion it was realised that Zarach alone was not the answer. We needed radical change at central government level if we were ever to make a positive change against bed poverty.
Three things Zarach has learned:
- Bed poverty is everywhere.
- Bed poverty is directly damaging hundreds of thousands of children’s only opportunity to break the poverty cycle: their right to an education.
- If enough people hear about the prevalence of bed poverty in the UK, we can join together to make sure those in power acknowledge it and are forced to take action.
In November a short piece was filmed with BBC Look North was picked up by the BBC website and social media channels. It was the most viewed video that week with over 4 million views and then it was picked up by BBC Breakfast. Since then there has been an interview by Jeremy Vine, Radio 5. Zarach has been in the Daily Mail and there’s been a brilliant piece in The Guardian. Comments: ‘I’ve never heard of bed poverty.’ Or ‘I didn’t realise there were children without beds in this country’.
At the end of this post there’s a link to our #EndChildBedPoverty government petition. In 2021 A National Food Strategy investigated the food system and made recommendations to parliament to improve health outcomes linked to food. As a nation, we need the same for sleep. We need central government acknowledgement that the current system is broken and that transformational policy change is required to address child bed poverty and the thousands of tired children sat in UK classrooms it leaves in its wake.
Since the November BBC piece, schools in every corner of the UK have asked for support to set up a Zarach where they live or work.
Zarach is a charity set up to fight child bed poverty. If a school find out a child doesn’t have a bed, they are referred and a brand new bed bundle is delivered. Further support is offered to help the family towards financial independence. If our government address some of the causes of bed poverty directly, then we wouldn’t have to keep treating the symptoms.
Bex
#EndChildBedPoverty #petition #makeadifference #sharingIScaring #itonlytakesaminute
