Children relying on charity for food in their bellies

NEARLY 90,000 children are living in poverty in the province of Alicante.

According to data provided by the Spanish Statistics Institute 16,000 of them are in the city of Alicante.

Many of those children would go to school without having breakfast and with nothing to eat during the morning if it was not for the help of organisations like the Red Cross. These children also need shoes and clothes and there are cases of children that started the New Year with no school books because their parents cannot afford them.

The Red Cross is trying to help these families by buying school books; they also provide them food and nappies and, in many cases, they have to pay their electric bills and even help to pay their mortgages otherwise these families would be homeless and living on the streets.

The Red Cross has about 15,000 volunteers in the Valencian Community and 7,000 of them in Alicante province. Many expatriate clubs and socities raise funds for the organization throughout the year.