13.12.2010

Kari Mäkinen 

Protecting the Richness of Childhood – Churches combating Child Poverty. A Finnish Perspective 

A speech at seminar arranged by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

and the Church of Sweden, 13th of December, 2010, in Helsinki

 1.  Poverty deepens

Approximately 17% of the population of the European Union – 84 million people – are in risk of poverty. The poverty of children, in particular, has increased. One fifth of children living in the European Union live below the poverty line. 

Finland is no exception in this respect. If poverty is defined by a household income of less than 60% of the average, there are 920 000 people living below the poverty line in the Finnish welfare state. This means an annual income of less than €13,000.

The situation has changed in the last fifteen years. According to some estimates, during this period the differential in income, wealth and welfare has grown faster than at any previous time in any western country. The incidence of poverty among children has tripled. Currently, 150,000 Finnish children are in some way affected by poverty. Although the most recent studies indicate that the number of poor people has decreased, they also show that poverty has deepened. The EU 2020 Strategy’s goal of decreasing poverty strikes at the rawest nerve of the Finnish welfare state.

2.  What is the poverty experienced by a Finnish child?

Through its diaconal work, and its work among children, the church is in contact with the ordinary life concealed by the poverty statistics.

Children are poor through no fault of their own. Childhood poverty is the result of family poverty and misfortune. Single-parent-families, in particular, increasingly struggle to make ends meet need.

This means that in daily life cheap sausage is bought instead of meat; even travel by public transport is impossible; accommodation is cramped and healthcare is insufficient. This inequality in healthcare typifies the Finnish situation. Inequality in income is reflected by inequality in welfare. The health of the poor is worse than the health of the better off. The Finnish socio-economic health differentials are the highest among OECD countries.

The Finnish child grows up in a consumerist culture, in which designer labels, new cell-phones, a plethora of hobbies and falling pray to every blandishment of the entertainment industry are required for social acceptance. An indigent child or young person has no opportunity to attain the means by which identity is shaped and built, resulting in a profound experience of exclusion and humiliation.

Shame and poverty in Finland are inextricably linked. Those who have experienced poverty say that it causes them to avoid others. The social ethos emphasizes self-reliance, and that everyone is the architect of their own fortune. Poverty is associated with sloth and fecklessness. The unemployed, and those who need resort to society’s safety nets – living at other’s expense – are responsible for their misfortune. They are failures both as persons and citizens.

This experience affects the deprived child. When parents are over-burned, tired and depressed, other problems such as the abuse of alcohol, domestic disharmony and mental health problems may result, all of which make it much harder for a child to cope. The experience of shame, exclusion and marginalization is transmitted from one generation to another.

Shame may also account for the fact that Finnish poverty is to such a great extent invisible and silent. The public discourse on poverty is often led by more advantaged members of society, whose ‘us and them’ assumptions tend to place the blame for poverty others, which aggravates the sense of exclusion and marginalization among those, who experience poverty.

3.  The priority of children  

In relating to the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion and its long term strategic goals, the church must, among other things, speak on behalf of the voiceless and the fearful. The church's basic work brings it in contact with the human experience of poverty and what people in such circumstances deserve as human beings. No one is only poor, even though poverty concerns all aspects of human life.

I should admit that when I speak of poverty I do not speak about a world I know through my own experience. I cannot know the hatred, shame and humiliation poor families with children face in Finland or Europe today, or what it means to grow up in the midst of poverty.

It is essential to seek means by which a person afflicted by poverty may be heard, and through which their understanding of their own situation may be valued as a basis for decision making. Here the church can have a special role.

The founding ethos of the Nordic welfare state is based on the 'Golden Rule', which is concerned with the equal value, fundamental unity, mutual responsibility and empathy of all people. Its starting point is that the condition of society is assessed from the perspective of the most vulnerable. Society is as strong as its weakest link.

This requires us to pay special attention to children, and especially to those children who are most vulnerable. All policy must be based on how it affects child poverty and the situation of those families with children in the worst circumstances.

From a Christian perspective this is non-negotiable. For Jesus, it is children who both serve as our model, and we are judged by our treatment of them. This cannot be ignored.

In the current climate this requires among other things increasing the level of basic economic security especially for families with children, and keeping charges low in both health and social services. It is clear that to increase the level of basic security and to change the differentials in public health require expenditure. But it is short-sighted to cut costs at the expense of children.

4.  Value system

Ultimately, this is not about the politics of social- and healthcare, but about the values of the whole of society. There is another value system, supported by the global financial markets, which calls for a transition to a competitive society and has attained par with the ethos of the Golden Rule. In this value system, the state of society is not assessed by the welfare of its weakest links, but by the standards of the affluent majority and by competitive ranking. Welfare services are seen as social charity, rather than as being based on the common humanity of all.

Indeed, when the human being’s value in society is measured by their productivity or ability to consume, poverty no longer only involves less opportunity to participate in common life, but also the erosion of human dignity.

The direction of society is inextricably linked with any effort to combat the deepening inequality and child poverty. In our present situation it is especially important to hold on to the Golden Rule as the ethical basis for the welfare state. This concerns all sectors of society, including economy and trade, whose ethical and social responsibility is in danger of being lost as global productivity and competitiveness figures increasingly hold sway. It is of the utmost importance that business and economic decision-making be based on its effects on poor and deprived children.

5.  Wealth is not just the absence of poverty

A rich and balanced childhood is not only the result of the absence of economic poverty and the safeguarding of livelihood. A culture in which everything is seen through the prism of economics and consumption is in danger of losing what is quintessential for human life. The needs of children cannot be traded in the marketplace. Life is not about bought and consumed commodities and services. The fundamental relationships on which a child’s life depends are of a different order. Basic trust can only be nurtured by adults in secure family relationships. Children do not purchase educational services from their parents.

Reinforcing this perspective is a task which arises from the churches’s anthropological understanding. It requires active co-operation between the diaconal and children's work of the parishes alongside other adult networks around the child. One good adult can make all the difference to a child.

Ultimately, no child is just poor or marginalised. Every child is fully human, with a unique life created by God. No less do the children of those families who cannot afford ice hockey equipment or designer labels need nurturing arms, warmth and love. These are the things that may indeed constitute the wealth of a poor child.