Day Two: As I'm on a journey, of sorts, I'll just follow where this inevitably winding & bumpy road might lead. Today the road seems to be leading me to the intersection of Poverty & Children.
In 1994 the Canadian Government pledged to end child poverty by 2000. Today, 12% of Canadian children still live in poverty- that's 1 in 9- more than 1,000,000 Canadian kids! (source: Canadian Children's Rights Council) That fact astounds me! When I think of how I live (a family of 4, making sacrifices to get by on one income) we still have "enough". When I look at our average-sized closets packed to the brim, our mudroom overflowing with multiple shoes & jackets, hats & mitts for each member of the family, I know we live comfortably.
Although my children are smaller than average (we got 3 years out of one winter jacket between the two girls), we still have piles of children's clothing that is in really good condition. I was really happy to find out about the Oak Avenue Clothes Closet. The Clothes Closet offers FREE clothes for children from infancy to age 12! Did I mention that the clothes are given to children for FREE? What an amazing gift to those families! The Clothes Closet is located in North Surrey. www.oanh.ca/clothescloset.html
If you know of other free "clothes closet" programs please leave your comments!
In doing some further research:
ReplyDelete- 1989 the gov't made the pledge to end poverty... my math is off!
- Some stats put child poverty at 14% in Canada.