When the Swiss school day ends, most children head for clubs or sports. But those who can’t afford to go are left on their own, already at a disadvantage. For the first time, the federal government is stepping in to break the cycle.
In St Gallen, home to about 70,000 people, they say height above sea level is proportional to income level; wealthier residents live on the ridge overlooking the city, while the poor and working class tend to stay in the long valley on either side of the city centre. That stratification plays itself out in everyday life, especially for children.
«I grew up in a neighbourhood where we were the poorer ones, the working-class people, the lower rung on the ladder,» says Nicole Schönthal, a mother of five who grew up in the hillside town of St Georgen but now lives in the valley, in St Gallen’s Tschudiwies neighbourhood.
«Here you just see another level of poverty,» she says. «That was hard for me, because I saw young people, little kids that don’t know what to do with themselves.»
For Schönthal and her husband, who work as caretakers at the neighbourhood school, funding after-school and extracurricular programmes for their children is «just not doable», and the area’s lower-income families all find themselves in the same situation.
Left behind
Although Switzerland’s social safety net ensures that most people have food to eat and a roof over their heads, the cycle of poverty is very much intact and starts at a young age, according to Bettina Fredrich of Caritas, one of the largest non-profits fighting poverty in Switzerland.
«Children from poorer families don’t have the same early [educational] opportunities as other children,» she says. «Often, activities for young children are funded privately, and poverty-affected families can’t afford them.»
What are the consequences? Fredrich says children who are left out from the chance to develop skills learned in school and build up a personal support network beyond the classroom are much more likely to fall behind academically and end up in the same situation as their parents: scraping by and isolated from the rest of society.
She points to a recent UNICEF study ranking Switzerland 16th out of 35 in «educational well-being» – mostly, she says, because not all children get the same early opportunities.
That divide – and the disadvantages that follow poor children throughout their lives as a result – is the target of the Swiss government’s first-ever initiative to fight poverty nationwide, to the tune of CHF9 million ($9.5 million) over five years.
That doesn’t sound like much, but Ludwig Gärtner of the Federal Social Insurance Office says it’s enough to gain an understanding of what initiatives already exist across the country that are working on giving everyone the same shot at success.
«A lot is already being done in this area, especially in the area of early education,» he says. «But there’s no systematic overview and often no evaluation of what the programmes are doing and whether it could be improved. We don’t have a clear picture of what is happening where, we only know anecdotally that something is going on here, something else there.»
And, some of the government funds could go to support programmes addressing the divide between rich and poor in an «innovative» way, says Gärtner.
Kids in charge
A programme already underway in St Gallen known as «open work with children» could be an example of just such an initiative.
In a neighbourhood on the city’s west side, that day’s offering is buzzing with activity. At a construction station, a small girl with a blonde ponytail furiously hammers away at a self-designed project – a house for her doll. The counsellors say she is here every time the group is offered and always stays the entire time. Elsewhere, clay sculptures dry in the sun and a group of boys construct and decorate fake weapons – yes, weapons – out of cardboard.
«We set clear ground rules with them, that they can’t shoot at other kids or play with them in an open area,» a counsellor explains. «But they wanted to do it, so we let them.»
That’s the idea behind the programme: letting children call the shots,
building a variety of skill sets as a result. They can design their own activities and come and go as they please, but counsellors say most stay until the end because they don’t have anywhere else to go.
When the city first introduced the offering a few years ago in a pilot project, no one was sure who would turn up – but on the first day, they were «overrun», mostly with children from the city’s lower-lying areas, says Nicole Bruderer, who’s in charge of the city Youth Secretariat’s «open work with children» offerings.
«Kids from wealthier neighbourhoods have other things available to them and their after-school programmes are already fully booked,» Bruderer tells swissinfo.ch. «Kids from the valley could participate in those programmes, but they usually don’t because it’s a different culture up there, it’s expensive and it’s a long way to go…the groups [of children] don’t mix.»
Someone to talk to
As a mother, Schönthal saw that divide playing out daily in her neighbourhood as she observed children aimlessly wandering around after school, getting into trouble or sharing the streets with unsavoury characters like addicts and alcoholics. So, she and other concerned parents finally placed a call to the Youth Secretariat, looking to at least give the youngest children a chance to stay out of trouble and build a future for themselves.
Her timing couldn’t have been better: the city’s open play group was looking to expand into that part of town.
The programme is only a month old in her neighbourhood, but Schönthal already sees an «incredible» difference – families are coming out of hiding to meet their children and, as a result, each other. And, the counsellors who run the programme serve as role models and sounding boards for children when the going gets tough at home or at school.
‘Milestone’
Though Caritas’ Fredrich sees «few concrete goals or measures» in the government programme right now, she hopes her organisation and others dedicated to fighting poverty can benefit from the tailwinds of the awareness that’s building as a result.
«This [government] programme is a milestone,» she says.
«It’s the first time the federal government has accepted poverty as a problem and a phenomenon in Switzerland and has made it clear that something must be done.»