One in three children in the Balearic Islands (34.1%) is at risk of poverty and exclusion. This is reflected in the report “Childhood in the Balearic Islands” ( UNICEF Balearic in collaboration with the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB)).
Going back to school is not easy for many of the families because there are many expenses that not all families can afford. In Spain, textbooks are only valid for one year to the next, as a new edition is pulish every year and not all schools work with the same publishers.
The cost of school equipment averages around 500 euros per pupil per year. These amounts vary depending on the type of school and the level of education of the individual pupil, but represent a large sum that also has to be paid all at once. The average expenditure on school books ranges from 122 euros for pre-school children to 253 euros for high school graduates, the cost of the school canteen averages 112 euros per month, and the cost of extra tuition averages 751 euros per child per year.
The Balearic Islands are the community with the highest percentage of foreigners, 18.8% of the total population. According to the INE, 221,653 foreign citizens currently live in the Balearic Islands, most of them from Morocco, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Colombia and China.
The official languages in Palma de Mallorca, as in the entire Balearic archipelago, are Catalan and Spanish. This makes it very difficult for foreign families to help their children at home, as Catalan is not a popular language in the world.
HOPE Mallorca helps the children to have a better future through tutoring given by a teacher who comes to the stations of the foundation every week.
CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE!
