77% of the families that request some type of help so that their sons and daughters can participate in recreational activities in summer live below the poverty line and 34% live in a situation of severe poverty. These are data from a report prepared by the Fundació Pere Tarrés that vindicates the need for the most vulnerable to have a continuity of leisure and educational activities once the school year is over to guarantee that minors in a more delicate situation have their needs covered emotional, nutritional and educational also in summer. The entity, which plans to grant scholarships this summer to more than 6,000 children, urges children to be placed on the political agenda and asks companies and individuals for financial donations that allow minors in vulnerable situations to access the much-needed activities leisure in summer.
And it is that if the ludic activities during the summer holidays represent a great outlay for families, they are unaffordable for the population with fewer economic resources. Thus, one in three scholarship holders analyzed in the Pere Tarrés study live in conditions of severe poverty and with a per capita income of 3,290 euros, when the global average in Catalonia is 14,000. A situation that makes it impossible for these families to guarantee a minimally balanced diet. Many of them, point out from the entity, live in small, unhealthy and overcrowded apartments, in which the average number of people who live in them is five individuals and in many cases they are forced to share a home or room.
2022 was the year that the entity had the most scholarship recipients in its history (5,669), aid that has grown by 40% in five years, they explain. For this summer and given the economic and social situation, they aspire to reach 6,300 scholarship holders. And for this reason, they ask that public policies take children more into account and also request that companies and individuals make their economic contributions. With the economic item they aspire to help minimize inequalities, “break” the spiral of poverty and, especially, guarantee that the most disadvantaged boys and girls can access leisure activities that cover their emotional, educational and nutritional needs, since In many cases it is attending camps or summer camps that ensures a balanced meal for many of these minors.
The Cap infant sense colònies campaign seeks to guarantee 6,300 scholarship holders, obtain financing and also raise awareness of the importance of the right to leisure. The foundation is proud that 40% of the scholarship activities last one month. Although they aspire to more.
In data, half of the scholarship recipients last year were boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 14. The casals d’estiu are the ones that receive the most subsidies (in 53.9% of the cases) and a third of the scholarships go to camps. 67.5% of the scholarship holders had Spanish nationality and almost 40% (39.6) reside in Barcelona. With regard to beneficiary families, one in two are single mothers and almost half (47.2%) have a large family card or three or more children. According to the entity, nine out of ten scholarships requested are approved and in most cases in which it is not granted it is due to lack of documentation.
