Starving children begging for food are depicted in television advertisements pleading for Australians to make monthly contributions to bring them a better life. Of course, these children are in socalled " Third World " countries - a long way from " First World " Australia !
It comes as something of a shock to realise that right here in first world Wollongong we have children who start the day without even a morsel of breakfast. Children at Albion Park public school are given a healthy breakfast of toast, Vegemite, fruit and Milo to fill empty stomachs and help them concentrate on their lessons - for a nominal payment as low as just twenty cents.
This has been an initiative of the school canteen, and the volunteers who provide this service are finding it harder and harder to raise the money needed to keep it going from their fund raising activities. They have been recently forced to turn to the local McDonalds for help.
This sad story raises two issues. The first is that hard times are hitting home in Australia, brought on by the GFC of 2008, when employment started to sharply contract and as a result, family incomes became tight for many people. It seems that in some homes there was insufficient money to provide breakfast for the kids - and many went to school hungry.
The second point is our education system. We spend a huge amount of money on providing schools and teachers, but hungry kids just don't absorb education like their better fed peers. It is a fact of life that kids who start the day with something in their stomach are more attentive and learn faster.
It is depressing to think how little money is needed to provide a few loafs of bread, some margarine and a tub of Vegemite, and yet in these troubled times that is becoming an uphill task for the people who volunteer to run school canteens.
Surely both the Federal and state governments should look at this sort of breakfast programme as part of the education process. Not all schools need this help, but those that do should not be denied.
Or do we need to advertise on TV for public help to find a few lousy dollars to fund school breakfasts in " Third World Australia " ?
No comments:
Post a Comment