More than two million children in Spain are living in poverty, a figure that places the country with the highest child poverty rate in the European Union.
In the Rekalde district (Bilbao) we meet some of the more than 40,000 vulnerable families served by the CaixaProinfancia program throughout Spain.
On World Children’s Day, the “la Caixa” Foundation reinforces its commitment to the integral development of children, girls and adolescents in vulnerable situations.
The **fight against child poverty** is a priority line of action for the **”la Caixa” Foundation**, which will **invest more than 4 billion euros by 2030 to drive social transformation**. **Through the CaixaProinfancia program**, created in 2007, it has accompanied nearly 400,000 children, girls and adolescents throughout Spain, hand in hand with a network of more than 400 collaborating social organizations.
**Sebastián** is 3 years old and lives in Rekalde, a neighborhood in Bilbao with a high presence of vulnerable families. Since he was barely a few months old, he has participated in CaixaProinfancia activities, which have also offered socio-educational support to his sisters, Amaia (9 years old) and Aitana (5 years old). His mother, Karol, 29, raises her three children alone and depends on the Guaranteed Income Benefit to support herself. She dreams that her children will study throughout all stages: “That they complete the ESO [compulsory secondary education], the Bachillerato [preparatory school], university. What I couldn’t do, they should do it.”
Stories like the one of this family illustrate the **purpose of CaixaProinfancia: to prevent vulnerability from being passed down from generation to generation** and to offer minors **ongoing support** that reinforces their educational, emotional, and social development.
A decisive stage in development
On November 20th, World Children’s Day, the “la Caixa” Foundation particularly focuses on early childhood, from 0 to 6 years old. It is a decisive stage in cognitive, emotional, and social development. Scientific evidence is clear: investing in the first years of life is one of the most effective ways to break the cycle of poverty. That’s why CaixaProinfancia has strengthened its intervention with two key services:
– Family Spaces 0-3, an intensive support program for families with babies that strengthens their parenting skills and guarantees safe and stimulating environments.
– **Growth Spaces 3-6**, a new service that promotes the right to play, leisure, and culture as educational tools. To this end, it combines actions for children with workshops and shared spaces with their families. Through playful, artistic, and community activities, values, healthy habits, and positive family bonds are fostered.
**Sebastián** has been through both. He started in the 0-3 year program and is now continuing in the 3-6 year program, which has just started in a pilot phase. His mother is confident that this space will provide him with the help he needs: “I know that being with them will greatly improve him.”
This family participates in the program through Gazteleku, one of the more than 400 social entities that articulate CaixaProinfancia throughout the territory. This community development association focuses on improving the quality of life of the citizenship in the Rekalde district, where some of the neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates in the Basque Country are located.
A play-based learning
Oihane López is the educator who accompanies the girls and boys of this new 3-6 Growth Space in Rekalde. She is a psychologist and speech therapist, and has been working with childhood in Gazteleku for more than 10 years.
Doing it in this specific age range is not the same as with children under 3 years old: “They communicate a little more verbally – not all, some are a bit behind in that aspect – so they communicate their needs, their tastes, the things they want to do, the projects they want to develop, the dynamics that perhaps they don’t like as much…” explains. It is also an age with a key strength: “The imagination they have helps a lot to develop the dynamics. That emotion and wonder at anything is quite contagious.”
The **activity** in this space is structured around **three moments**. First they **snack**, which is used to learn routines of feeding and hygiene. Then there is a **play time**, sometimes directed and sometimes free. “Play-based learning is what most powerfully enhances all the skills of the little ones. They develop skills at a cognitive level, at a communicative level, social skills with others and with their peers… They develop all the capabilities they will need for the future,” explains López.
Finally, the sessions end with a **literary closing**. “We can use different elements: we usually use books, we put on puppet shows, we do our own performances with space fabrics… The literary closing lowers our pulse a bit after tidying up,” says the educator.
They’ve only been with this new service for a few weeks, but the initial reception has been good: **“The girls and boys come delighted**, they are very eager. We have to continue implementing routines a bit, but so far it’s super positive, they come like crazy.” Also among the families: “Many already knew the space beforehand. They have been working for other years in the 0-3, so they feel comfortable bringing their girls and boys,” recounts López. She adds that mothers and fathers “also find a weekly space in which they can express all their concerns about parenting and personal issues.”
For this educator, her work is also a source of personal satisfaction. “Working with the little ones is wonderful. Besides the fact that they infect you with positive energy, every achievement you see in them, every small advance, which is a lot at these ages, brings you a lot of satisfaction,” she shares.
Another of the children who attend this new service is Sara, age 4. Her mother, Fatima, describes her as a girl “rebellious but also very affectionate.” She has a brother, Adam, age 9, who has also been through the program. “I met Gazteleku about 4 years ago, through the school, because my son needed resources. They helped him a lot with Basque and math,” Fatima recalls.
Sara has been participating in the Espacio Familiar 0-3, and now continues in the 3 to 6 year old one. “She comes very happily. I think the games that the educator plays with them help children a lot to be more sociable, to learn basic rules, to say words, to have limits…”, her mother values. She also appreciates the space it generates for families themselves: “Sharing our experience as mothers, how to help children, education… We share many different things.”
**Childhood and family, at the center**
Arantxa Gutiérrez, social worker and educator with 30 years of experience in the entity, is currently its coordinator of childhood and family. She explains that the association, which has been supporting families in the neighborhood for almost half a century, has been participating in the CaixaProinfancia network since the program started in 2007. «For us it has been a very big opportunity. It has been a way to be present in the territory and to bring resources and means for the children and families we work with», she values.
18 years later, Gazteleku has once again pioneered by entering the pilot phase of CaixaProinfancia’s 3-6 Growth Spaces. «We participate in this project because it is truly an opportunity to bring back to the territory a socio-educational space that is super important for children who are in more difficult situations,» explains Gutiérrez.
For her, support in early childhood through projects like this is key so that no one is left behind. «If you don’t have this opportunity, sometimes it’s difficult later on. Children who have not participated in programs, who have not handled things, who have not read, who have not listened to stories, who have not gone to the cinema…, it shows that they play at a disadvantage,» she points out.
The service aimed at children from 0 to 3 years old, and the one from 3 to 6, **share the same philosophy: childhood and family at the center, with an integral and personalized approach, and a community-based perspective that builds support networks and opportunities**. This intervention is directly aligned with several articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Childhood cannot wait. Their well-being is the best indicator of the future we are building as a society. On this November 20th, the “la Caixa” Foundation reaffirms its conviction: every boy and every girl deserves to grow up with equal opportunities and to be surrounded by affection, stimulation, and protection. Investing in early childhood is defending the rights of girls and boys.
“la Caixa” Foundation
English version translated with AI