Growing up in the middle of a pandemic with your parents unemployed

"I have to choose whether to buy food or pay the rent," says Maria del Mar L, 50.

She was unemployed, after being in ERTE since March 2020. She lives in Valencia and has two children: Rafa, 19 years old and Maria, 12. She worked as a cook in a bar and with that she managed to get to End of the month.

"This pandemic has caused a disaster in my family," he says.

According to the Save The Children's report titled

one in three vulnerable children lives in families that currently have all their members unemployed.

Child poverty affected 2.3 million children in Spain before the crisis caused by covid-19.

For this study, the NGO conducted 1,290 interviews with vulnerable families that it supports in Spain.

Surveys revealed that 46% of the parents served by the organization have lost their jobs due to the economic crisis.

María del Mar is one of them.

More information

• How to continue meeting the needs of children after so many months of pandemic

• The aftermath of the pandemic on adolescent mental health

This Valencian woman is a single mother and the bar where she worked closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic and since then she has been in ERTE and now she has been fired.

With the ERTE payment, he entered 600 euros per month and the rent of his apartment is 450 euros, so he already had difficulties to make ends meet, but now he has been left with nothing.

"The children's father does not give me money and I have not started to collect unemployment," says Maria del Mar that what worries her most is not being able to give her children a good diet.

When he goes to the market he buys everything white label.

"No meat or fish because it is very expensive," he justifies.

All this has affected this mother a lot psychologically.

“There are days when I don't want to get out of bed or look in the mirror.

My only driving force is my children, ”he explains.

"The one who has had the worst time is my little daughter because she does not understand what happens at home and she is always asking me to buy her chocolates that we cannot afford," acknowledges Maria del Mar. Her son, Rafa, left his university studies to dedicate himself to look for work to be able to help his family.

“If we do not act, 80% of children living in poverty today will be poor adults in the future.

There is evidence of successful experiences at the international level that shows that by implementing the right policies, child poverty can be eradicated ”, declares Andrés Conde, Save the Children's Director General.

Currently, 12.2% of families have no income compared to 7.5% a year ago and, on the other hand, families that earned more than 1,200 euros have fallen from 23.3% to 15.9% a month.

This has meant that six out of 10 vulnerable households in Spain have difficulties in dealing with the mortgage or rent.

Manu, the seven-year-old son of Vivían O, 37, asks his mother every day why his father no longer goes out to work every morning, it seems strange not seeing them active.

The two used to work in a restaurant, in the Madrid neighborhood of Usera, which also closed due to the pandemic.

Now they spend their days looking for offers on internet portals and submitting their CV in the hope of getting a job that allows them to buy food for the family.

Much of the food in these households has become dependent on neighborhood food banks.

Another great support has been the school canteens where it is sometimes the only place where children get a protein on the plate during the day.

Many cannot afford a meal of meat, fish, or the like at least every other day, as recommended by the World Health Organization.

"31% of the families served by Save the Children can only eat meat, fish or the equivalent, once or twice a week and about 3% say they can never buy these foods," says the report.

For many families like Vivian's, meat is a luxury: "Buying protein for meals has become a luxury at home."

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