GrobyOnline - A gift with a difference

A gift with a difference

Christmas – what better time to think about young carers?

December 2023 Most families follow the conventional pattern of a couple settling down together, creating a home, nurturing and caring for their children. The parents will do their utmost to ensure a carefree childhood, watching their offspring grow and mature until they themselves take on similar responsibilities.

For some children responsibilities come too soon, the roles are reversed and they give up everything that other children enjoy to become carers. The definition of a young carer can vary, some say it’s up to the age of 18, others that it’s 25. But that’s splitting hairs on a subject that’s often described as “hidden in plain sight”.

Young carers take on the responsibility of caring for family members or loved ones who may have chronic illnesses, disabilities, mental health needs or other complex needs. They can be responsible for everyday tasks like household chores, giving out medicine or even making sure household bills are paid.

It’s no wonder that there is an impact on their lives, including education, personal development and often the simple enjoyment that other children have. Leicestershire County Council is keen to increase awareness and publicise the help that is available.

A child shouldn’t feel guilty

Charlie from Coalville, now aged 15, was referred to Leicestershire County Council for help when a professional recognised that he was a young carer. He cares for his mother Sarah after she was in a serious car accident.

“I feel guilty. Why? Because I can't be there for my mum all the time,” said Charlie in a letter he read to Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England. “I wake up thinking is my mum ok and not been poorly through the night. I love my mum and will do anything for her - even though she is always telling me to go with my friends and be a teenager. Young carers groups have helped me meet other people in the same situation and understand how I'm feeling. Without both young carers’ groups I wouldn't have had the support, help and guidance that I needed.” He added that being a young carer affects every aspect of his life.

Sarah, Charlie’s mother, said: “I’m glad that Charlie has found support for him as a young carer, and I feel that more young carers out there could benefit from having similar support that Charlie has. There needs to be more awareness of what a young carer is so they can get the support they need.”

But it isn’t easy for Charlie. Although he has support from family, it can often be overwhelming for him as he misses out on activities that are deemed ‘normal’ for his age. Since reaching out for help his life has been made a lot easier.

“Stories like Charlie’s really open your eyes to the reality of what young people all over the county can be dealing with daily,” said Councillor Deborah Taylor, cabinet member for children and families. “Young carers make an enormous difference to their loved one's lives, and it’s important that they get that support back. If you identify as a young carer, or recognise someone who is, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.”

What support can the Council give?

The county council’s young carers team offer a range of help, including:

Young carers assessment
One-to one sessions with a youth worker
Young carer youth groups or CYCLe (County Youth Council for Leicestershire)
ID card / young carers passport to support children to identify themselves as young carers to schools, health providers and other organisations
Young carers can be registered at GP surgeries, schools, colleges and education providers.

Local Government budgetary problems mean that charities can play an important role complementing the work of councils. The Carers Trust , for example, works to transform the lives of unpaid carers. It partners with its network of local carer organisations to provide funding and support, deliver innovative and evidence-based programmes and raise awareness and influence policy. Carers Trust’s vision is that unpaid carers are heard and valued, with access to support, advice and resources to enable them to live fulfilled lives.

How you can help

As you look forward to seeing the care free faces of your children or grandchildren at Christmas you may pause to think of the challenges faced by young carers throughout the festive season. If you wish to help by making a charitable donation, or asking relatives to make a donation in lieu of a Christmas gift, the County Council recommends you do so via their partners at www.youngleicestershire.org.uk. The donate button at the top of the screen (highlighted in yellow) enables you to pay by card and includes a notes option where you can specify that it is for young carers.

What would you like for your birthday?

An interesting alternative gift

November 2013 When you are young these are six words which fill you with excitement and anticipation. But when you reach your more mature years, or to put it another way start to get a little long in the tooth, answering the question may be a bit more challenging. There may be things you badly need, so the choice is an easy one. Or there may be some little luxury that you'd really appreciate. Sometimes senior members of the family hierarchy feel that times are currently particularly difficult for children and grandchildren and prefer to be on the giving, not the receiving end of gifts. Those younger members, however, can be persistent as there is great pleasure to be had from both giving and receiving.

So if there's nothing you need you may start to think whether they can make a small gift on your behalf which would benefit someone less fortunate. Thoughts turn to those suffering real hardship, perhaps in the Third World. But what to do? If you've done it before you may feel there's a limit to how many bags of seed one can give to a struggling farmer or how many chickens or goats you can give. And you may have read somewhere, or been told, that although most are a great help such gifts don't always work out the way you thought they would.

Alternative gifts

There are many worthwhile causes that can make great use of the donation that may be made in lieu of a gift, but if you are still uncertain there is another option. It's an option which can give great benefit to the recipient but has a unique aspect – it costs the donor virtually nothing. Now that must be pretty special. A gift which can cost as little as £15, and which makes everyone feel good but doesn't leave a hole in your bank balance. So what is this special gift? It's microfinance in Togo, Benin, The Philippines, Cambodia, Ecuador, Pakistan and Zambia.

Poor people often lack access to basic financial services and are appreciative of small loans to start or grow businesses. This scheme isn't an outright gift, it's an interest free loan which will be repaid. So if all goes well the lender will get their money back. If it doesn't go well the lender may lose part or all of their money. The Typhoon Haiyan devastation in the Philippines may have destroyed the hopes of some to lift themselves out of poverty along with the ability to fund their repayments, but from the lender's point of view that's no worse than making a charitable donation in the first place. Overall the risk of default is very low at around 1% and your microloans can be spread over several recipients, with each receiving a minimum of £15. When a loan is repaid the lender can withdraw it from the scheme or lend it to someone else.

You have the satisfaction of knowing that you have helped someone work towards a better life whilst at the same time helping your family. If you repeat the process year on year and include birthdays the amount in the microfinance account will quietly grow, though its value will of course be eroded by inflation and may be affected by exchange rates. So how do you help your family? You tell them you want the account to be in their names, which means that they can withdraw the money at some future date if they badly need it.

The CARE International confederation, which is one of the world’s leading aid and development organisations, works in 87 countries to help the world’s poorest people find routes out of poverty. It also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and works to create lasting change in poor communities. The microfinance scheme described is managed by the part of the organisation that can be found at www.lendwithcare.org.

How does it work?

The website explains it like this. An entrepreneur in the developing world approaches a local microfinance institution (MFI) with a business plan. MFIs are effectively local banks that have long-established working relationships with CARE International. If the MFI is satisfied that the entrepreneur’s business plan is promising and sound, they approve the proposal, provide the initial loan and then help them write their profile for lendwithcare.org.

This explains where they are, what they will do with the loan, how much they need, how much has been raised so far from other lenders, and how it will be repaid. Currently there are nearly 40 profiles on the website. When you’ve decided who you wish to support you provide a loan to get the entrepreneur’s business plans off the ground. You can make a contribution towards the total needed, in increments of £15 or more. Or you can invest the full amount yourself.

As soon as the entrepreneur’s loan is fully funded by you (and other supporters) this money is then transferred to the MFI, and used to replace the initial loan already paid out to the entrepreneur. You are now funding the entrepreneur; the MFI and CARE International will continue to manage the progress of the loan to completion. Importantly, now that you have covered the loan, the MFI can move funding onto another hopeful business plan.

While all this is happening, the entrepreneur is busy growing their business. The MFI and CARE International regularly updates the entrepreneur’s profile on the lendwithcare.org website, so you can follow their amazing progress. And you can see how their new source of income (and your loan) is transforming every aspect of their lives – paying for food, medicine and school fees, and providing a better future for their whole family.

The entrepreneur gradually pays back their loan. The MFI transfers these repayments to CARE International who then credit the repayment to your lendwithcare.org account. You usually get your money back in full and on time but you might have to wait longer if the entrepreneur is not able to keep up with their repayment schedule. And if the entrepreneur is unable to pay back their loan, you might not receive the full amount of that part of your loans.

The borrowers

Many of the beneficiaries are women. Kossiwa is 31 years old and lives in Togo with her husband and 6 children aged between 13 and 3 years who are enrolled in school. She sells in her house maize, beans, millet and sesame but needed £441 to travel to the north of the country to buy these cereals directly from the farmers. Her loan will be fully funded when 10 more donors have pledged a minimum of £15 each.

Loans can also go to groups of entrepreneurs. There are 15 aged between 22 to 50 years women in the Umodzi group based in Zambia. Some of these women are married, some are single and others are widowed and all have children and/or look after orphans. All the children go to school. The women of the Umodzi group run small scale businesses like tailoring, grocery stalls and second hand clothes. This group has already accessed three loans from the MicroLoan Foundation and already has £1945 of the £2497 loan pledged.

Mirriam Nalawala is a member of this group. She is 40 years

old, a widow and has one child who completed his secondary school in 2012. She runs a tailoring and design business and would like this loan to top up on her business capital and buy more tailoring machines for over locking and embroidery. She started her business after being sponsored to attend college where she learnt her skills. She also wants to send her child to college and pay school fees for the orphans she looks after. She runs her business in the market and has been doing so for 10 years. She hopes to employ someone to help with the day to day running of her tailoring stall. She has dreams of diversifying her business.

If you feel that you want to try a different way of helping people who have demonstrated that they are committed to helping themselves you may find this microfinance scheme rewarding. When you hear those six words asking what you want you could perhaps reply in six words. “I want to help through lendwithcare.org.”