Childrens Rights

Children are particularly hard hit in vulnerable situations. Children have the right to safety, health, school and well-being – rights that are violated every day around the world. Alcohol affects these rights in a negative way and causes that children are affected even harder in an already vulnerable situation. In order for more children to have their rights fulfilled, it is necessary to shed light on and change the view of alcohol consumption.

Children of parents with alcohol abuse have worse conditions

Parents' alcohol consumption affects children both before and after birth. Children who grow up in a home where their parents abuse alcohol have a greater risk of ending up in mental illness or abusing alcohol themselves when they grow up. In low- and middle-income countries, safety nets are weaker for children who get in trouble, which means that many children from homes where alcohol is a problem risk ending up on the streets. This may be because the children themselves flee when the violence in the home becomes too unbearable. It may also be because there is no money for schooling and therefore the parents encourage the children to move out to start working.

Partner organizations help children and their parents

Several of our partner organizations work with vulnerable children. Many of the children testify that alcohol is abused at home, that violence is common in the home and that there is no money left over for clothes or school books because large parts of the income were spent at the pub in the afternoon.

Parents' alcohol abuse often leads to children in low- and middle-income countries, where safety nets are weak, being forced to leave school because the money is not enough. The children can then choose to move out on the street, as they experience that environment as safer than at home. There, it is easy for them to end up in alcohol and drug abuse themselves. Photo: Helena Goldon

In Kenya, BCYCBO works to help the most vulnerable children. The organization offers the children security, health care and schooling. But the most important thing is the work to get the children to strengthen their self-esteem and meet safe adults so that they start to trust the adult world that has failed them again.

Together with the children, BCYCBO seeks out the parents and supports them in parenting, children's rights, the consequences of alcohol and drugs for the economy, development and the family. Many parents decide to stop drinking after they have received help from the organization to understand the consequences of alcohol. Over 500 children receive help each year.

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