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About PPA

Children of the Underbelly

 

Imagine being a nine-year old. You are desperate to find food for your youngest siblings. They are pleading with you because mum and dad are busy smoking crack and there is no money left for food in the house. You manage to shoplift. You hide the food and slowly feed your siblings, but your mother is engulfed by fury: she wants the food. She turns on the cooker ring and places your little hand on the burning heat until you reveal where you’ve hidden it. Once found, while you and your siblings stare on, she eats it, betraying your childhood.

 

Imagine being a six-year-old. Your mother has left you alone with your siblings, and locked the door. You are starving, but she is too disturbed to notice. The neighbours know about your hunger and through the letterbox they throw in cupcakes, but they are too frightened to alert social services because your mother’s boyfriend has the capacity to harm them. The cupcakes make for a good day, on a bad day you draw pictures of food on pieces of paper and swallow them.

 

We’re only asking you to imagine it, but too many children in Britain are living it.

 

These are true stories of the lives of some of the children at Kids Company. It’s not that our country lacks food, it’s because of poverty, inequality and the disturbed choices of parents who can’t prioritise their children’s needs.

 

In order to return children to a safer childhood we begin by providing food. We offer two meals a day and/or food vouchers. In sitting together with our staff and eating at the dining table, children are afforded a family experience which they appreciate profoundly. With just £2.00 per child per day we make an incredible difference to their lives.

 

Can you cherish a child by helping us to feed our most vulnerable children? Social services in poor areas can’t do it, but together we can.

 

Please use this website to inform your friends or simply to make a donation. Any amount you can give will be gratefully received.

 

Desperately seeking kindness!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camila Batmanghelidjh
Chief Executive, Kids Company

 

A hungry, miserable child can be an obvious sign of neglect.

 

Every day at Kids Company we offer loving care to vulnerable children who have often been neglected or abused. Many of the children who come to us tell us they feel hungry and that often there just isn’t enough food at home for them.

 

A survey of children at Kids Company found that;

 

64% Reported being hungry because there’s no food in their house

 

50% Go to bed feeling hungry

 

33% Rely on being given money to eat from a takeaway

 

85% Rely on Kids Company for their main meal of the day

 

A childhood lived without having even basic needs met such as a balanced diet leaves little opportunity for a child to fully engage in society. Without intervention and support, maltreatment in childhood, compounded by poverty and malnutrition increases the likelihood of perpetuating future cycles of maltreatment and poverty.

 

There are an estimated 350,000 children living in severe poverty in London many of whom survive on an inadequate diet. Through this appeal you can make a real difference to the children who come to us for help.

 

How you can help us

 

It costs more than £1 million a year to support 2,000 children through our food programme. This covers ingredients, cooks and kitchen support, as well as funding for our food voucher scheme to support children and families who are not able to come to our centres on a daily basis. It is only through the kindness of strangers that we can create little miracles every day for hungry and vulnerable children.

 

With your help our appeal will ensure that we can continue to feed children and raise vital awareness of the inequality and deprivation that is compounding the misery of maltreatment for thousands of lone children who are surviving their childhoods in silence.

 

For further information about the background to our Plate Pledge appeal including facts and figures about the adversities and inequalities that affect vulnerable children please click here:

 

[Child Malnutrition download .pdf]