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POVERTY

Opinion: Danmarks Indsamling is admirable, but what about the causes of poverty?

The purpose of Denmark’s largest televised charity event, Danmarks Indsamling, is to raise money “to help people in some of the poorest countries in the world to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals.” Peter Kenworthy discusses whether the causes of poverty should be given more attention through the event.

Published: 14 January 2019 12:00 CET
Opinion: Danmarks Indsamling is admirable, but what about the causes of poverty?
Danmarks Indsamling in 2014. Photo: Christian Liliendahl/Ritzau Scanpix

On February 2nd, annual charity event Danmarks Indsamling culminates with a large show on Danish national television. Before and during the show, 12 of the largest Danish humanitarian NGOs that run the event try to raise as much money as possible – this year in aid of poor and vulnerable girls worldwide.

Danmarks Indsamling focuses particularly on contributing to the six first UN Sustainable Development Goals. Amongst other things, these goals attempt to facilitate the end to world poverty, hunger, and epidemics such as AIDS, TB and malaria, as well as secure clean drinking water, gender equality and primary education for all.

Last year, 1.5 million Danes saw an array of politicians, businesses, celebrities and ordinary Danes raise money for homeless children in poor countries.

Humanitarian aid is necessary in a world where 800 million people are chronically malnourished, where inequality is on the rise, and where Danish development aid is either cut or used to promote Danish interests, in accordance with the Danish government’s development strategy.

Last year, Danmarks Indsamling managed to raise 78 million Danish kroner (10 million euros). But viewed against the Danish government’s 500 million kroner development aid cuts in 2014, and the fact that development aid as a percentage of GDP is now at its lowest level in 30 years, this is less remarkable.

Besides, development aid is more or less a case of symptomatic treatment if we don’t focus on and try to understand the causes of poverty and change its basic conditions, something that is demonstrably not high on the agenda during Danmarks Indsamling.

Because without understanding the underlying reasons for poverty, it becomes impossible to demand changes to things like unfair trade practices or the tax avoidance of large multinational corporations, which amounts to more than the total foreign development aid given to poor countries.

The target of UN Sustainable Development Goal 4.7 is to “ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development,” including knowledge about human rights, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity.

But according to an annual Ministry of Foreign Affairs poll, only a third of all Danes believe that they have any sufficient degree of knowledge of development aid or the conditions in poor countries, and under half believe that development aid actually works.

Perhaps the 12 organisations behind Danmarks Indsamling should use some of the massive attention on development issues on February 2nd to ensure that the Danish population is better equipped to understand the causes of poverty and the goals of the UN sustainable Development Goals that the charity event is trying to help bring about?

Sociologist and journalist Peter Kenworthy is a contributing author to “African Awakening: The emerging revolutions”. He has worked for several Danish NGOs in Africa, as a communications officer for a municipality, as a journalist for Danish newspapers and as a freelance journalist for Danish and international magazines and newspapers. He also has a teaching degree and has worked at several schools.

 

READ ALSO: Former Danish PM didn't 'save the children'

POVERTY

Queuing for food handouts: How the pandemic has left thousands more going hungry in Spain

A year after the pandemic hit Spain, the need for food handouts has soared in the country, especially by workers in the sectors hit hardest by the economic crisis that followed.

Published: 19 March 2021 09:22 CET
Queuing for food handouts: How the pandemic has left thousands more going hungry in Spain
Reina Chambi, 39, queues to receive food aid outside San Ramon Nonato parish in Madrid. Photos: Oscar del Pozo/AFP

Although her face is covered by a black mask, Rita Carrasco still wears bright red lipstick. But her easy smile faltered when she had to join Madrid’s “hunger lines” for food aid.

“It was a hard moment. I felt shame,” says the 41-year-old Mexican, who lost her job as a theatre teacher when Spain’s tight lockdown began in March 2020.

Since then, she has not been able to find work and has used up all her savings.

Over the past year, the demand for food packages has soared in Spain, especially among those employed in sectors worst-hit by the resulting economic crisis.

Last year, the Catholic charity Caritas said it helped half a million people who had never before asked for food packages.

Since December, Carrasco (pictured above) has been going every Friday to a soup kitchen in Carabanchel, a working-class neighbourhood in southern Madrid, to collect a box of groceries.

She also helps distribute food as a volunteer.

“Giving and receiving changes your perspective,” she says.

Beans and fruit

Wearing yellow vests, the volunteers hand out fruit, cereal and beans at a church building to those lining up in a narrow street outside.

The neighbourhood has a high immigrant population and many in the queue are Latin American women.

People used to be able to eat a hot meal onsite, but virus restrictions now mean they can only serve food to take away.

It is one of four soup kitchens opened last spring by the Alvaro del Portillo charity.

Before the pandemic, there was only one, which served around 900 people.

Since then the number of people using the soup kitchens has soared to around 2,000.

“As the months have gone by, we’ve noticed things easing,” says Susana Hortigosa, who runs the charity.

“Although the level of demand is still higher than before the pandemic, it has dropped slightly because people have started getting their furlough payouts or have found a few hours of work” as the economy has picked up, although most still need help, she says.

The leftwing coalition government of Pedro Sanchez has unblocked €40 billion ($48 billion) since the start of the crisis to fund the furlough scheme.

But with the administration overrun with claims, it has often taken months for the payouts to materialise.

‘A great help’

Such was the case with Reina Chambi (pictured below), a 39-year-old carer for the elderly whose husband was employed at a hotel. When the pandemic hit, they were both left jobless.

“My husband stopped working completely and they took a long time to make the furlough payment so we had to turn to the church for help,” says the mother-of-two, waiting outside a soup kitchen in the freezing wind in the Vallecas district.

While the payout has given the family some breathing room, the couple are still jobless, meaning they still need food packages.

“It’s a great help because we don’t have to buy milk, chickpeas, noodles, those things at least. And we can spend (the payout) on detergent or meat,” says Chambi, who misses the “stable life” she enjoyed after arriving from Bolivia 15 years ago.

Even before 2019, official figures showed more than one in four people in Spain were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, one of the highest rates in Europe.

And the pandemic has left the most vulnerable even more at risk.

“It’s so frustrating. Each time I try to escape this situation, something else happens,” sighs Amanda Gomez, 53.

Divorced just before the pandemic, she is raising two children on her own, one with Down’s Syndrome, on a cleaner’s tiny salary.

But she’s not ready to give up — a keen cook, she’s looking up recipes online to “make the most” of the food she’s got, and she is also beginning to bake cakes to order and deliver them to people’s homes.

The hope is that one day she might be able to open her own bakery.

“You dream big because dreaming doesn’t cost anything,” she says.

“What I want is to be able to go to the local church without asking for anything. Just to help out.”

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