4.1m children are living in poverty in the UK right now.
In response to vulnerable children, those living in poverty, currently experiencing a total lack of access to arts + creative material, we are launching the Aloha Box.
A sustainable and hopefully nationwide initiative asking people to donate/send (with enough fundraising - Freepost), any surplus art materials they have at home to Aloha Box.
These materials will be repurposed into good-as-new art kits and sent to children identified as vulnerable so that their experience of Covid-19 lockdown may be a little lighter and a little brighter.
Aloha Box
PO. Box 307
Lee-On-Solent
PO12 9HF
England
How will it work?
We will clean and sort these items, dividing into good-as-new creativity kits ~ Aloha Boxes ~ and send batches of kits to schools to distribute to children. For safeguarding reasons, we cannot send these kits directly to children.
Working with schools and Local Education Authorities (LEAs), we will be able to determine the number of Aloha Boxes each school receives in relation to the number of children receiving Free School Meals, identified as in need, or at the schools' discretion are requested. In the school holidays, we will work with local councils and food banks to ensure that there are kits available for distribution.
Why are you doing this?
Creative and imaginative play through arts and crafts has an important impact on a child's development which cannot be overstated. Opportunities to engage in free play will support positive mental health, gross motor skills, processing skills and general cognitive development.
Having spoken with local schools and many teachers, the sad reality is that there is currently little, to no provision for children to gain access to these materials and we hope that our passion and determination to sustainably re-home and repurpose much of the surplus that we live with, will bring some colour and fun into a child's life.
These are essential experiences and developments for children and young people, and we are driven to create access to these channels especially for those in need right now.
Child Poverty in the UK
An estimated 3.7 million children live in absolute low income. This means that they experience material deprivation and are excluded from social participation.
• Social participation: the extent to which people are able to engage in activities that others in society would regard as the norm;
• Material deprivation: the extent to which people are financially constrained in their ability to buy basic essential goods and services.
(We've included the links above and more facts and figures on our website because this is a sensitive discussion that requires correctly-informed definitions and statistics).
What can I do?
Donate funds or Donate arts and crafts materials
Every penny raised is injected back into the Aloha Box to ensure as many children living in poverty in the UK have access to creative materials as possible.
- £3.10 will pay for someone to send their surplus materials to Aloha Box HQ.
[Royal Mail - small parcel max 2kg]. - £15 will pay for 80 Aloha Boxes to be created.
- £19 will pay for 72 Aloha Boxes to be delivered to a school or food bank.
- £90 will pay for 500 Aloha Boxes to be created.
- If you have surplus arts materials - please send them to us to help fill the boxes!
why ALOHA ?
Aloha is a word from the Hawaiian language used for greeting someone and saying goodbye. There is a deeper meaning to Aloha, the word also means peace, compassion, kindness and community.
the Shaka
The Aloha Box is symbolised by the shaka hand gesture. The hand-sign the shaka is a symbol which stems from Hawaiian surf culture and is recognised around the world. The shaka symbolises compassion, solidarity, respect and friendship.
These are the core values of the Aloha Box project. These are values which we hope will be translated in each Aloha Box we are able to create and send to a child living in poverty.
The Aloha Box is a symbol of community spirit.
We are not a registered charity but hope to transform into a charity, should the concept prove successful and sustainable. For complete transparency, a copy of our accounts is publicly available. Please email [email protected] for a copy.